OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD. To 5 April.
Keswick.
OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD
by Timberlake Wertenbaker.
Theatre By The Lake In rep to 5 April 2008
Runs 2hr 55min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 April.
Down under comes out on top in fine revival of this humane drama.
Public response by the final week of this play’s run indicates an out-of-season audience for Lakeland drama, justifying Theatre By The Lake’s ambition in presenting Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play alongside The Recruiting Officer.
Our Country’s Good is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, which itself draws on the diaries of a British army Lieutenant guarding early prisoners in Botany Bay.
Written when theatre was under siege from the British government, Wertenbaker’s 1988 play is a defence that goes far beyond the merely defensive. Amid the sometimes near-feral convicts and quick resort to violent punishment among some officers, the blooming of humanity in the prisoners who take part in what seems destined to be a disastrous version of The Recruiting Officer is an assertion of both theatre and humanity.
Internal theatre politics are also on display, with a dialogue about the roles of writer and director. And there are beautiful examples of how language and thought intertwine. Maeve Larkin, as hard-case female convict Liz Morden, finely captures this at a moment when repression threatens to overwhelm the production.
Only minutes after giving her criminal autobiography in terse canting argot, Morden saves the situation with a complex, finely-balanced sentence about the play. It can, however, sound falsely elegant; Larkin rightly retains just enough of a mechanical rhythm to make clear her character’s acquiring a new, unfamiliar method of thought and speech, like Shaw’s Eliza Doolittle. But, awkward as it still is, she is acquiring it.
There are fine performances throughout, Kieran Buckeridge capturing Ralph’s keenness alongside his moments of intimidation by the unsympathetic Major Ross (Peter Rylands, excellent, as he is in the contrasting character of shunned convict/hangman Ketch). David Tarkenter is outstanding as the playwright-in-waiting Wisehammer, establishing his own private world, while Polly Lister captures the keenness of Mary Brenham, the convict who finds new purpose in acting.
Other productions may have more thoroughly captured the darkness of the convict life and Ralph’s sexual agonies, but this Keswick account hardly underplays the miseries of Botany Bay. And it triumphantly proclaims the power of theatre to transform people in the harshest environment.
Duckling Smith/Lieutenant Johnston: Valerie Antwi.
2nd Lieutenant Ralph Clark: Kieran Buckeridge.
Captain Collins/Robert Sideway: Dennis Herdman.
Liz Morden/Lieutenant Dawes: Maeve Larkin.
Mary Brenham/Reverend Johnson: Polly Lister.
Major Ross/Ketch Freeman/Meg Long: Peter Rylands.
Dabby Bryant/2nd Lieutenant Faddy: Anna Stranack.
John Wisehammer/Captain Phillip: David Tarkenter.
Captain Campbell/Midshipman Brewer/John Arscott: Simeon Truby.
Captain Tench/Black Caesar/Aborigine: Declan Wilson.
Director: Stefan Escreet.
Designer: Martin Johns.
Lighting: Nick Richings.
Sound: Matt Hall.
Movement/Etiquette: Lorelei Lynn.
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
2008-04-09 09:38:17