AustLit
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Contents
- Dead Timber, single work drama (p. 1-12)
- The Woman Tamer, single work drama (p. 13-30)
-
The Drovers : A Play in One Act,
single work
drama
"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."
- The Sacred Place : A Play in One Act, single work drama (p. 47-60)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Irish Memories and Australian Hopes : William Butler Yeats and Louis Esson
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. -
Louis Esson and Australian Drama
1947
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 6 no. 2 1947; (p. 93-96,104) -
Dramatic Writing in Australia
1928
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Illustrated Tasmanian Mail , 4 April 1928; Nettie Palmer : Her Private Journal Fourteen Years, Poems, Reviews and Literary Essays 1988; (p. 336-339) -
Australian Plays
1921
single work
review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 22 January 1921; (p. 3)
— Review of Dead Timber and Other Plays 1920 selected work drama
-
Australian Plays
1921
single work
review
— Appears in: The Queenslander , 22 January 1921; (p. 3)
— Review of Dead Timber and Other Plays 1920 selected work drama -
Irish Memories and Australian Hopes : William Butler Yeats and Louis Esson
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. -
Dramatic Writing in Australia
1928
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Illustrated Tasmanian Mail , 4 April 1928; Nettie Palmer : Her Private Journal Fourteen Years, Poems, Reviews and Literary Essays 1988; (p. 336-339) -
Louis Esson and Australian Drama
1947
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 6 no. 2 1947; (p. 93-96,104)