"Our Country's Good"
By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Date: December 2005
Venue: Memorial Hall
Our Country’s Good, by Timberlake Wertenbaker, charts the setting up of the first penal colony in Australia in the 18th century. The play focuses around the staging of a play by the convicts, as organised by a young Lieutenant. The production was heavily influenced by the work of Bertold Brecht in its use of a stark set, bold lighting, live music performed by the actors on stage, and scene titles being displayed on placards. The sense thus created of a company of actors telling a story encouraged the audience to focus on the social and political messages in the play, and tied in with work at A-level on the effectiveness of Brecht’s theatrical methods.
The play is based on the historical novel The Playmaker (1987) by Thomas Keneally, which is in turn based on actual journals and other written accounts from that settlement. Our Country’s Good has love, death, comedy and profound thought.
Choose an image from the selection on the left
