The Explorers (play)

The Explorers is a 1952 Australian radio play about the Burke and Wills expedition by John Sandford. It was Sandford's first play.

The 1952 radio production starred Allan Trevor and Lloyd Berrell. It was one of a series of longer plays broadcast on ABC that ran at 90 minutes (the others were productions of British plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest and Hamlet).

The play was repeated in December 1952 (in a shortened version) and produced again with a new cast in 1957.

It came out the same year as another play about Burke and Wills, I Tell My Story.

Reception
The Daily Telegraph called it "very ordinary... If the main purpose of this play was to lead up .to the tragic end of the two explorers, then they cettainly took an unconscionable time a-dying."

The Adelaide Mail said "it seemed to me to be more of a documentary than a straight drama... the play was padded out too much with extraneous incidents which could have been conveyed in a sentence rather than having whole scenes devoted to them. As a result the entire action seemed episodic. Further, while consider able attention was paid to the minor characters of Brahe. Paton. and McDonagh, that of Wright never really emerged — a sad failing as his almost criminal negligence was the main cause of the failure of the expedition."

The Melbourne Agus said "Sandford did a great job with it partly because he had such tremendous material. He didn't even have to go far to find it. The play was very largely an adaptation of Frank Clune's book Dig, eked out from Argus files. It will be interesting to see how he makes out in the future with stories not quite so tailored to measure."

Leslie Rees said "Sandford brought a surging, unfettered energy to the visualization of Burke’s fatal faults of impetuosity, impatience, stubbornness and pride, contrasted with the quiet understanding but ineffectuality of Wills as they trod the first route across the continent to Carpentaria. Here a potentially monotonous and drear subject was given new incisiveness and power because of the very artlessness of the approach."

Original stage play
The radio play was based on a stage play by Sandford that had received an honourable mention in a 1951 Australian playwriting competition held by the Playwrights' Advisory Board (PAB) in honour of Australia's Jubilee Year, but had not been produced. (Another version of the Burke and Wills story, John McKellar's I Tell My Story, won third prize in the Jubilee Radio Serial Competition.)

Sandford was a radio and theatre actor who says the play was suggested by a friend; he wrote it in eight days.

One of the judges for the competition was Frank Harvey who directed the radio production.

Leslie Rees, Chairman of the Board, said the stage play was "powerful" and listed it as one of those plays that although they "demand large casts and frequent scene changes, it is a shame that they should not be given opportunity of full production on the stage as in any properly theatre-minded country."

The Playwrights' Advisory Board listed the play in 1953 as one of a number of Australian plays worthy of production.

A copy of the stage play is held at the University of Queensland library.

Premise
The story of the Burke and Wills Expedition, and their death due in part to just missing their fellow expedition members. The play begins outside Menindee, New South Wales, with the expedition well underway. Several men leave the expedition due to clashes with Burke but he enlists new members including Wright. The group travel to Coopers Creek. Wright is sent back to get more supplies as Burke and Wills lead a small group north, while the rest stay at Coopers Creek under Brahe. Wright never arrives at Coopers Creek so Brahe leaves to go south, just missing the arrival of Burke and Wills. Burke decides to head to Mount Hopeless instead of going to Menindee. He and Wills die, but King is rescued.

ABC Weekly called it "the tragic story of Burke and Wills’ fatal expedition in search of a route from Victoria to the northern coast of Australia. Sandford shows a keen sense of characterisation and dialogue. The death of Gray, the terrible second arrival at Cooper’s Creek on the very day the base party left to go south, and the tragic end of Burke and Wills are given forceful treatment in a way that emphasises the faults of Burke’s character, together with his iron courage and energy, and the magnitude of the exploring task before him."

1952 radio production

 * Lloyd Berrell as Burke
 * Allan Trevor as Wills
 * John Tate as Wright
 * Gordon Glenwright
 * Ray Hartley
 * Max Osbiston as Grey
 * Sidney Chambers
 * Rupert Chance as King
 * Alan Herbert
 * John Ewart

1957 radio production

 * Ray Barrett as Burke
 * Richard Davies as Wills
 * Nigel Lovell as King
 * Jack Hume as McPherson
 * Moray Powell as Dr Becker
 * Reg Lye as Wright
 * Keith Buckley as Greg Dosh Mahommet
 * Tom Farley as McDonago
 * James Forrest as Baton
 * Bruce Beeby as Brahe, narrator
 * Leonard Teale as Hewitt
 * Rupert Chance as Landells
 * Don Crosby as Dr Wheeler