''The Southern Cross'' is a 1930 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 ...
about the
Eureka Rebellion
The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British administration of the Victoria (Australia)#Colonial Victoria, colony of Victoria, History of Au ...
.
It is not to be confused with the play by Edmund Duggan
of the same name.
Esson's play was published in a collection of plays by Esson in 1946.
The ''Melbourne Argus'' said "It catches very well the atmosphere of the Eureka Stockade, and the delineation of Peter Lalor makes one's heart warm towards that stalwart."
''The Bulletin'' felt "the people in 'The Southern Cross' are too sketchily drawn and seem imperfectly understood."
Another critic felt the play was "sincere and deeply felt, but it is so episodic with its thirteen scenes, some confused, some static, that it never really comes to grips with its subject."
According to Leslie Rees "Esson's play too literally follows established facts; it is a purely objective presentation of the main events leading into the stockade fight... one does not feel that the author has included anything of himself, except some technical skill. He has not created any people, only copied them from history and from Raffaello. Even apart from this, Esson's version takes a very narrow view of the whole episode, suggesting none of the political undertones and ramifications, the growth of the Reform League, with its list of Chartist demands, and so on. Esson seems to concentrate only on the physical facts of Eureka."
References
External links
Southern Crossat Ausstage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Cross, The
Cultural depictions of the Eureka Rebellion
1930s Australian plays
Plays set in Victoria
Plays set in colonial Australia