Our Country’s Good (March - April, 2022)
The journey has begun. Our group of convicts have been cast out of their homeland and are on their way to exile in Australia. Eight and a half months on the oceans, held in the confines of the ship's hold
Meet some of the real historical figures that inspired Our Country's Good.
Robbie Ross is Scottish, a major in the Royal Marines, responsible for discipline among the convicts. He is incapable of understanding other points of view, brutal and sadistic by nature, and his frustration makes him inarticulate, so that he speaks in a tortured manner, sometimes using words of his own invention.
James Freeman (Ketch) is Irish, convicted of killing a sailor, to which he pleads innocence. After agreeing to act as hangman, he is ostracised by the other convicts.
Midshipman Harry Brewer is instructed by Captain Phillips to organise the hanging of three men who have been found guilty of stealing from the colony's stores: Thomas Barrett, aged 17, James Freeman - who is reprieved on condition of agreeing to act as hangman, after which he is given the name of "Ketch" by the other convicts - and Handy Baker. Handy Baker was Harry's rival for the affections of Duckling Smith, a convict, and Harry is haunted by the memory of having him killed.
Jemmy Campbell is also Scottish and a Marine, and acts as Ross's second in command. He also speaks in a tortured and incoherent manner, but occasionally displays some understanding of the other officers and the convicts.
Mary Brenham is different from the other convict women in that she was educated until she was 10 and can read and write. She was convicted for stealing. On the voyage, she fell in with Dabby Bryant and her husband, who pimped her to a sailor in return for food, and she continues to be ashamed of this.
Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker is a moving, uplifting and humorous play based on Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker, which uses true historical characters and facts taken from the diary entries of the officers on board the eleven sailing vessels that left England in May 1787, bound for the other side of the world. The essence of the play is the power of theatre and tells how the convicts are allowed to perform the first British play ever to be staged in that “topsy-turvy”country, to celebrate George III’s birthday on 4th June 1789. With only two copies of the text, a cast of convicts and one leading lady who may be about to be hanged, the rehearsal process is far from straight forward for their Director, an inexperienced Second Lieutenant, Ralph Clark.
Despite the brutality, starvation and hardship that the convicts suffer, they learn to respect and support one another as they work together to create a production of The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar, of which they are ultimately truly proud.
This is a rewarding, challenging and fun piece of powerful drama.
(Rehearsal photos below courtesy of DeeDee Doke, to whom many thanks!)
Production team
- Director: Chris Avery
- Production Manager: Alex Priestley
- Set Design & Build: Sarah Deboys
- Technical Director: Jonathan Spriggs
- Stage Manager: TBA
- Deputy Stage Manager: Fiona Howe
- Lighting Design: Martin Avery
- Sound Design: Simon Mumford
- Props Manager: Kate Crofts
- Wardrobe Supervisor: Gill Reed Williamson
- Hair and Makeup: Hannah Curtis
- Poster & Programme: Steve Doke
- Photography: Dee Dee Doke
- Crew: The Penguin Club
- Front of House: Combined Actors
- Publicity: Combined Actors Publicity Team
Cast list
- Captain Arthur Philip/John Wisehammer: James Dowson
- Major Robbie Ross/Ketch Freeman: Michael Husband
- Capt David Collins/Robert Sideway: Justin Allum
- Capt Tench/John Arscott: David Sear
- Ralph Clark/Second Lieutenant: Mark Tunstall
- Harry Brewer/Capt Jemmy Campbell: Ted Ridgway Watt
- Liz Morden/Lieutenant Will Dawes: Lucy Woodcock
- Mary Brenham/Reverend Johnson: Lucy Green
- Dabby Bryant/ Second Lieutenant William Faddy: Sarah Deboys
- Duckling/Lieutenant Johnston: Jenny Scudamore
- Meg Long: Gill Reed Williamson