Our Country's Good

Synopsis

Based on a heart-warming true story, the play follows a group of 18th Century convicts and officers as they confront a savage new land. These jailbirds, male and female, have no rights and their treatment is as ferocious as the landscape. But one man defies the rules. Lt Ralph Clark creates the very first piece of theatre ever to be performed in Australia, The Recruiting Officer. The drama mounts as the convicts rehearse, and their hopes for a new life grow stronger. Incredibly the play will go on! Our Country's Good was first presented at the Royal Court Theatre, London on 10 September 1988. Note: The convicts use explicit language and this award-winning play contains scenes which some people might find shocking.

Our Review:

David Jobson - 16 October 2012

Within a timber frame, the first sign of a colonial civilization, the redemptive story of the first group of convicts to be transported to Australia is brought to life in Our Country’s Good, directed once again by Max Stafford Clark. Under his direction is a stellar cast. Dominic Thorburn and Laura Dos Santos make a lovely couple as the scrupulous Ralph Clark and the reserved Mary Bryant, as they gradually find a role in this developing penal society whilst putting on the colony’s first theatre production, ‘The Recruiting Officer’.

Joining the play-within-a-play is Matthew Needham as Robert Sideway, who provides the funniest moments during the rehearsal scenes as he acts with grandiose theatrical postures. Helen Bradbury plays a haughty Dabby Bryant, and her rivalry with [Kathryn O’Reilly] as the demented Liz Morden is impassioned. Ian Redford is quite a disconcerting Harry Brewer as he struggles to have a relationship with the seductive Duckling Smith, played ...

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