Our Country’s Good
Timberlake Wertenbaker adapted from Thomas Keneally’s novel, The Playmaker
Directed by Rachel O’Riordan
Lyric Hammersmith
Star rating: 5
Photo credit: Marc Brenner
Our Country’s Good is an exceptionally good play, probably one of the best written in the last fifty years. Each time I see it I’m struck afresh by the skilful, powerful, poignant way Wertenbaker blends huge themes such as redemption, forgiveness and innate human goodness while sending up theatre at the same time as she sings a joyful hymn to the strength of drama and shared endeavour. And in Rachel O’Riordan’s directorial hands this is a stonkingly good production.
Usually this story of a group of troubled, damaged, deported convicts in a late eighteenth century penal colony at what was soon to become Sydney, is overlooked from a distance by a remote aboriginal. This time, Wertenbaker, with cultural consultant Ian Michael, has reworked and developed that character. Naarah, herself an Idigenous Australian, often saunters front stage as Killara to tell the audience what she and her people are experiencing as the British steal their fish and destroy their land. It works chillingly, partly because it’s done with blend of insouciance and passion. Meanwhile, of course, the convicts are, often reluctantly, working under Second Lieutenant Ralph Clarke’s direction on a production of George Farquar’s The Recruitung Office to the derision of several of the other officers. It’s meant to seem incongruous until the climactic last scene, which in every production I’ve seen, has sent me away from the theatre in tears of happiness. And this one was no exception.
At the heart of this show is Simon Manyonda as Clarke, the young officer who is keen on drama and believes that working together on a play would be better than repeated brutal punishment. Manyonda finds all the earnestness and patience that a director working with non-pros needs and he’s often funny – as well as lonely, desperately missing his wife until he finds solace elsewhere. It’s a fine performance. He is one of the few actors who doesn’t double in this production which uses an economical cast of eleven, sliding smoothly into red officer jackets over their convict clothes and changing body language with switch-flicking ease.
Ruby Bentall, for example, gives us a funny, prissy Reverend Johnson and a nice cameo as “shitty” Meg Long but really excels as Mary Brenham, the terrified young convict who gradually grows in confidence to such an extent that you can see her eyes gleaming with happiness and enthusiasm. Finbar Lynch, always good value, is repugnantly strong as the flog-em and hang-em Major Robbie Ross, and gently kind as Ketch Freeman.
Gary McCann’s set is a masterpiece of ingenuity and subtext. It comprises raked dry brown desert, studded with tropical trees sloping quite steeply upstage. British flags dominate the back wall. It provides places for characters to lurk when they’re not actually in the action although they leave the stage as well. By the beginning of the second act, the trees have been cut to stumps as a symbol of the devastation caused by these colonisers.
Our Country’s Good is both topical and timeless. The fight for the redemptive power of drama continues – in education, for example. Moreover, we still don’t understand the role of imprisonment in society: is it merely to punish or should it be rehabilitative? Troubled people continue to be alienated rather than nurtured. That is why McCann has gone for the anachronistic look in designing what he calls “costumes which mix contemporary clothing with items of historical military uniform.” Thus Catrin Aaron (good – like everyone else in this cast) wears a track suit as Liz Morden and Nicola Stephenson who plays Dabby Bryant, wears a denim dress. It’s another fascinating idea which enhances this fabulous play.
