OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD. To 24 February.
Liverpool
OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Liverpool Playhouse To 24 February 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 22 Feb 1.30pm, 17, 24 Feb 2pm
Audio-described 22 Feb 7.30pm
BSL Signed 21 Feb
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
www.everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 10 February
Characters and stage both undergo transformation in a highly desirable revival.
When Edward Dick isn’t directing he teaches acting. It’s to be hoped his classes are more orderly than the crowd Ralph Clark rehearsed for the 1789 Australian premiere of Farquhar’s classic comedy The Recruiting Officer. They were transported felons, seen here emerging first as a mass out of a prison-ship’s hold, gradually gaining variety, from Mary Brenham’s instinctive fine feeling and Robert Sideway, for whom acting means copying Garrick, to human derelict Liz Morden or Dabby Bryant, unable to distinguish between performer and character.
Dick’s strong revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1988 play is a neat follow-on from the Playhouse Christmas show The Flint Street Nativity, which saw primary schoolchildren trying to weld themselves into a cast and cope with dramatic illusion. As that played tricks with stage design, here the Playhouse stage is built out over the stalls, to make a new, intimate acting area.
The enlightened, Enlightenment views of colony commander Arthur Philip override officer-class objections to encourage Clark. Philip’s belief in the moral value of fine language is given passionate conviction by Michael Thomas, who’s also forceful as convict Wisehammer discovering the pleasure of authorship with a jealous sense of protecting the script against actors and directors.
Fine performances surround Nick Barber’s well-played Ralph: the comedy of Andrew Schofield’s Sideway, Sarah Ozeke’s Mary coming from her timid shell, hair suddenly abundant, as the performance arrives, Charlie Brooks flitting finely as Dabby.
Colin Tierney contrasts his abashed convict-hangman with Major Ross, whose anti-drama ire fuels a play written amid government attacks on the Arts. And Tracey Wilkinson’s vicious Liz provides high points in her frozen terror at the prospect of hanging and her morally-decisive switch from thieves’ cant to Farquhar-like elegance of expression.
Less happily, Leanne Best turns the briefly-seen Meg into a comic turn, while Dick’s staging blurs Duckling’s scenes with Harry Brewer. And the end is marred by the unwarranted ‘British Grenadiers’ intruding.
Max Stafford-Clark’s premiere, and 10th-anniversary revival, reflected his scrupulous style, while Sue Lefton achieved a different poetic fluency in her Colchester production last year. But Liverpool too provides a deeply moving, often high-flying revival.
2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark: Nick Barber
Duckling Smith/Lieutenant George Johnston/Meg Long: Leanne Best
Dabby Bryant/2nd Lieutenant William Faddy: Charlie Brooks
Captain Watkin Tench/An Aboriginal Australian/Black Caesar: Gabriel Fleary
Midshipman Harry Brewer/John Arscott/Captain Jemmy Campbell: John McArdle
Mary Brenham/Reverend Johnson: Sarah Ozeke
Captain David Collins/Robert Sideway: Andrew Schofield
Captain Arthur Philip/John Wisehammer: Michael Thomas
Major Robbie Ross/Ketch Freeman: Colin Tierney
Liz Morden/Lieutenant Will Dawes: Tracey Wilkinson
Director: Edward Dick
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting: Rick Fisher
Sound: Fergus O’Hare
Movement: Jane Gibson
Dialect coach: Samantha Mesagno
Fight director: Brett Yount
2007-02-13 16:27:28