''The Drovers'' is a 1921 Australian play by

Louis Esson Thomas Louis Buvelot Esson (10 August 1878 – 27 November 1943) was an Australian poet, journalist, critic and playwright. He was a co-founder of the Pioneer Players. His second wife, Hilda Esson (nee Bull), had a career in theatre besides work ...

. According to Esson's obituary the play was his "finest piece... one scene, one simple incident; it was what he could do; be never did anything better; and no one else did, either." It was published in a collection of plays in 1920 and 1945. The play was published before it had been performed. Leslie Rees called ''The Drovers'':

A play that will stand reading and rereading... Each character is dry-pointed, hardly more than a line-sketch in so brief a compass—... but definite and clear. The situation has some of the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. No play of ours more powerfully shows the grimness of a fate that broods over men who pit themselves against our vast inland wilderness.

Radio adaptations

The play was adapted for radio in 1940, 1943 and 1946.

Premise

"The Play tells of Briglow Hill, the injured drover, left to die on the track because the parched cattle must be driven on to a distant waterhole at all costs."

References

External links

The Drovers
at AustLit
The Drovers
at Ausstage * - includes complete text of play {{DEFAULTSORT:Drovers 1920s Australian plays 1940 Australian radio dramas 1943 Australian radio dramas 1946 Australian radio dramas