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Considering the success of Esson's only Shavian comedy, nearly a decade earlier,it was perhaps a pity that he did not get to speak more with Shaw. But by thattime he had turned his back on all that.Mter the performance Yeats left for Oxford with Lennox Robinson to discussplans for his poetic Tragic Theatre for Ireland, and Esson never saw him again. Inhis obituary tribute he wrote,[Yeats] was a fascinating personality, a brilliant wit and talker, when in the mood, though,like Shelley, dumb and helpless amid ordinary prosaic conversation. He was the HighPriest of Irish Letters, and not only produced great drama and poetry himself, but inspiredothers - Synge, Colum, Lady Gregory and even George Moore - to some of their highestefforts. He was that rare phenomenon, a really vital and creative force. 19He does not mention it but Yeats had inspired Esson also, perhaps even to hishighest efforts, but as Esson was to discover for himself, after his return to Australiain the spring of 1921, those efforts were either not enough or were misdirected.Perhaps the very enthusiasm with which Esson wrote of the poet's study, with itsBlake drawings and its peat fire and its exalted conversation about the greatest ofWestern art, should have warned Esson that his struggles to establish a version ofthe Abbey in Australia, using themes from the Australian bush, would bedisappointing.Mter all this Esson returned to Australia full of high hopes, and embarked onhis most productive period as a playwright. With Palmer and another friend andaspiring writer, Stewart Macky, he founded the Pioneer Players, and between 1922and 1926 they produced a number of Australian plays which helped to establishthe tone of the bush drama which dominated Australian playwriting throughout the30s and 40s. Esson at last began to write full-length plays in the style of those 'studies',which he had published in his first volume in 1911: studies for the kind of long playswhich he really wanted to write. In spite of its eventual failure the Pioneer Playershas since been seen as living up to its name, playing a crucial role in the earlydevelopment of modern Australian drama.The reasons for the eventual failure of the company are various. There was noMiss Horniman to support it financially during its early years. Australian audienceswere, as Esson ought to have expected given his early views about their philistinism,apathetic, or, if they did come, suspicious and distant. What taste the popularaudiences had for Australian material was well-satisified by an active and successfulAustralian film industry, an industry which lacked the self-consciousness about highinternational artistic standards which Esson and his colleagues tried to apply.The most important reason, however, was probably simply that Yeats' leadershiphad been so inspiring, and his practical advice so specific, that it left little roomfor Esson to respond creatively to the real questions which were facing him inAustralia in the 20s. What Esson was really interested in were issues of individualfreedom in a conformist society, the role of creativity and imagination in leadinga fulfilling life, and the search, on the personal and community levels, for anadventurous vitality of spirit with which to face the harsh realities of the world,realities which in Esson's world were becoming harsher with each passing year ashis writing declined in the late 20s and the 30s, with the Depression and anotherwar. He wrote about these issues often in his journalism, but he came to considerthis as mere hack work. He seldom wrote about them in the work in which he investedthe most faith and energy - his plays. In those, ever respectful of his mentors, hevainly strove to find a popular folk idiom rich with folk traditions which simplydid not exist in Australia. Even in the country of his new inspiration - Ireland- Synge's Aran islands, and Yeats' Cuchulan, Deirdre and Conchubar, came toseem a little remote from reality in the years of the Anglo-Irish War and after. Therewas no hope of finding an equivalent in Australia.WESTERLY, No.2, JUNE, 1989 39