The Drovers

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Event The Drovers
Venue Willard Hall, Adelaide, SA
Umbrella Event South Australian Catholic Schools Drama Festival
First Date 30 June 1966
Dates Estimated No
Status Amateur
World Premiere No
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.

PRODUCTION HISTORY The Drovers was first performed by the Pioneer Players at the Playhouse, Melbourne, 3rd December, 1923. It has since been performed throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In March 1940 The Drovers aired as a radio play produced by ABC Radio.
Description Source Website
Primary Genre Theatre - Spoken Word
Secondary Genre Drama
Subjects Australians
Masculinity
Relationships
Organisations
Contributors
Name Function Notes
Louis Esson Playwright
Works
Text Nationality Australia
Production Nationality Australia
Event Status Completed
Data Source
Source Description
Australian Drama Project (UQ) DROVERSLE
Event Identifier 112602