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y separately published work icon The Drovers : A Play in One Act single work   drama   - One act
Issue Details: First known date: 1919... 1919 The Drovers : A Play in One Act
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

"Life in the bush is hot, hard and not for the faint-hearted. Under the extreme sun of Northern frontier country a pack of itinerant drovers thrive in the land they call home. A freak stampede brings ‘Briglow’ Bill and his mates face to face with mortality and their masculinity and mateship are tested. All the while, Pidgeon, a young Aboriginal boy, watches the white fellows. He sees something the drovers cannot speak of and, for Briglow, this silence is as stifling yet as familiar and as comforting as the heat that surrounds them all.

The Drovers is a bush drama that is rich with tension, grim stoicism and heightened masculinity of the, notably, all-male characters. Clipped sentences and straight-talking speak of the no-nonsense attitude necessary to survive in the remote bush of the 1920s. The play draws us to the campfire where, in light and heat, we see the relationships the drovers experience: between each other, between white man and Aboriginal man, between man and land and, finally, the ultimate and unavoidable relationship: a man’s connection with life and death."

Source.

Notes

  • The 1999 Five Islands Press edition has the dedication : 'To the memory of my uncle John Ford Paterson.'
  • Also published in sound recording format.

Production Details

  • 1923 : Temperance Hall, Melbourne ; 3 December. Prod. Pioneer Players.

    1964 : Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne ; ca. August ; Prod. Melbourne Theatre Company.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1919 .
      Description: Typescript
      (Manuscript) assertion

      Holdings

      Held at: University of Queensland University of Queensland Library Fryer Library
      Location: The Hanger Collection of Australian Playscripts
      Local Id: H0520
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Dead Timber and Other Plays Louis Esson , London : Hendersons , 1920 Z507110 1920 selected work drama London : Hendersons , 1920 pg. 31-45
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Six Australian One-Act Plays Sydney : Mulga Publications , 1944 Z32296 1944 anthology drama Sydney : Mulga Publications , 1944 pg. 5-19
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Modern Short Plays Leslie Rees (editor), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1951 Z498819 1951 anthology drama (taught in 1 units) Contains: The Land of Heart's Desire / by W. B. Yeats - Riders To the Sea / by J. M. Synge - The Proposal / by Anton Chekhov - Interior / by Maurice Maeterlinck - Birds of a Feather / by J. O. Francis - The Drovers / by Louis Esson - The Carrier Pigeon / by Eden Phillpotts - Royal Favour / by Laurence Housman - Campbell of Kilmhor / by J. A. Ferguson - Ile / by Eugene O'Neill - The Odyssey of Runyon Jones / by Norman Corwin - Spoiled Darlings / by Edmund Barclay - Great Inheritance / by Gwen Meredith. Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1951
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon On Stage! Twelve Short Modern Plays H. G. Fowler , Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 1956 Z515396 1956 anthology drama Melbourne : Melbourne University Press , 1956
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Five Plays for Stage, Radio and Television Alrene Sykes (editor), St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1977 Z288060 1977 anthology drama criticism autobiography St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 1977
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Louis Esson : Plays 1 : Terra Australis Louis Esson , John Senczuk (editor), Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 1999 Z211146 1999 selected work drama Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 1999 pg. 225-238
    • Fortitude Valley, Fortitude Valley - New Farm area, Brisbane - North East, Brisbane, Queensland,: Playlab , 2013 .
      image of person or book cover 681213433901275862.jpg
      Extent: 1vp.
      Note/s:
      • Available as an PDF download.
      Series: y separately published work icon Playlab New Vintage Playlab (publisher), Fortitude Valley : Playlab , 2013- 16932703 2013 series - publisher drama

Works about this Work

Australian Drama, 1850-1950 Peter Fitzpatrick , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge History of Australian Literature 2009; (p. 180-198)
An overview of Australian plays and theatres from the mid-nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. Includes the subsections: The discovery of a voice; The coming of the cinema; New theatres, little theatres.
Teaching Australian Drama in the 50th State Dennis Carroll , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Crossings : Bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association , August vol. 6 no. 2 2001;
Framing the Landscape: Prichard's "Pioneers" and Esson's "The Drovers" Paul Makeham , 1993 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , October no. 23 1993; (p. 121-134)
Makeham compares the way in which landscape is invoked in both plays: the room of Pioneers; and the outdoors of The Drovers. The former invokes landscape as a presence separate from the domestic centre of Prichard's play. The latter locates its action wholly in an outdoor setting. But, despite the different ways of framing the landscape, both plays celebrate the resilience and propriety of the human activity situated within it.
Staging Australia : Models of Cultural Identity in the Theatre Peter Fitzpatrick , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Studies , April no. 13 1990; (p. 53-62)
Examines dramatic interpretations of Australia's "landscapes", particularly the Outback and Suburbia, with a focus on the work of Louis Esson and the New Wave playwrights (especially David Williamson).
Irish Memories and Australian Hopes : William Butler Yeats and Louis Esson John McCallum , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 34 no. 2 1989; (p. 33-40)
Esson drew his inspiration for a distinctively Australian theatre from a bewildering array of models from overseas, but he was highly influenced by the Irish poet and playwright, W. B. Yeats. Yeats encouraged Esson to write about Australia as if it were the centre of the universe. But despite the creative output of the 1920s, Esson failed to attract a large audience. McCallum concludes that, if not for Yeats, Esson probably would not have written the material on which his reputation is based and would not now be considered a pioneer dramatist.
Australian Drama 1921 single work column
— Appears in: Corroboree : The Journal of the Australian Literature Society , 1 October vol. 1 no. 1 1921; (p. 5-6)
Australian Drama : Some Thoughts Stimulated by the Australian Drama Night Held by the Australian Literature Society on August 25 John Quill , Mrs. Vernon Williams , Mary Simpson , Gerald Byrne , 1929 single work column
— Appears in: All About Books , 20 September vol. 1 no. 10 1929; (p. 329-330)
Byrne, Simpson, and Williams discuss performances of one act plays The Copper Fire, Absalom, Charlotte and Settling the Sectarian Question in the context of a debate sparked by St. John Ervine's attack on Australian theatre in the London Observer, 21 July, 1921 and the resulting correspondence from Mary Fullerton and other Australians. Quill reports.
Australian One Act Plays 1930 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Brisbane Courier , 11 January no. 22451 1930; (p. 12)
Drama Terry Sturm , 1981 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Oxford History of Australian Literature 1981; (p. 175-267)
Irish Memories and Australian Hopes : William Butler Yeats and Louis Esson John McCallum , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 34 no. 2 1989; (p. 33-40)
Esson drew his inspiration for a distinctively Australian theatre from a bewildering array of models from overseas, but he was highly influenced by the Irish poet and playwright, W. B. Yeats. Yeats encouraged Esson to write about Australia as if it were the centre of the universe. But despite the creative output of the 1920s, Esson failed to attract a large audience. McCallum concludes that, if not for Yeats, Esson probably would not have written the material on which his reputation is based and would not now be considered a pioneer dramatist.
Last amended 19 Sep 2022 11:51:19
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