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The Golden Cockerel is a 1951 Australian radio play by Catherine Shepherd about Alexander Pushkin. It was one of a series of plays from Shepherd on writers.

The play was produced again in 1952, twice.

Reviewing the 1952 production, The Age said " it became tedious so that attention wandered long before its end. Nor did the prolonged and thoroughly artificial death scene at the end improve matters. Here was a story but the people in it never really came to life and the most important thing in any drama is that its characters shall live."

Premise

"Well-born, Pushkin is shown spend-ing a wild, brilliant youth. The play reveals his developing social conscience, how he sees, himself as a golden cockerel who warns the world of peril and crows for liberty. He is exiled, then he marries the empty-headed Natalia. It is through his love of her and his jealous suspicions that, instead of remaining a golden cockerel, he falls prey to vulgar passions and descends to the behaviour of a game-cock. "

References

1. "BRIGHT SPOTS IN TONIGHT'S RADIO". The News. Vol. 57, no. 8, 830. South Australia. 26 November 1951. p. 12. Retrieved 21 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
2. "The Week in Wireless". The Age. No. 30, 138. Victoria, Australia. 1 December 1951. p. 10. Retrieved 21 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "Amateur Hour Coming; Festival On A.B.C." The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 94, no. 29, 162. South Australia. 29 March 1952. p. 10. Retrieved 21 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "RADIO PLAYS A.B.C.", ABC Weekly, Sydney: ABC, 22 March 1952, retrieved 21 February 2024 – via Trove
5. "THE WEEK IN WIRELESS". The Age. No. 30245. Victoria, Australia. 5 April 1952. p. 14. Retrieved 21 February 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
6. "RADIO PLAYS for NEXT WEEK A.B.C.", ABC Weekly, Sydney: ABC, 24 November 1951, nla.obj-1551876424, retrieved 21 February 2024 – via Trove

• Works by Catherine Shepherd
• 1951 Australian radio dramas
• 1952 Australian radio dramas
• Australian radio dramas based on actual events
• Cultural depictions of Alexander Pushkin
• Biographical plays about writers