Our Country's Good

Our Country's Good description

Now and again a true story hits the West End stage. This is one of them, about the British convicts sent Down Under in the 1780s to begin life in the first Australian penal colony. Life was brutal but theatre was, even then, seen as a humanising force. Powerful stuff.

Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker has revisited her original 1988 play in a major London revival exploring the impact of British power and justice and homing in on the theme of deportation as punishment. As you can imagine it’s highly relevant to the Conservative government’s desire to send immigrants to Rwanda, making it a particularly emotive experience.

A true story about real people

Thomas Barrett, aged 17, was sent to Australia for stealing a sheep. James Freeman, aged 25, was sent away for 14 years for assaulting a sailor. Dorothy Handland, aged 82, stole a biscuit. They were just three of the unfortunates banished 15,000 miles from home on a dangerous voyage, finally arriving in 1788. To keep the convicts under control and ‘civilise’ them, young lieutenant Ralph Clark decided they need to put on a play.

Some of the names have been changed but most of the play’s characters are based on real people who actually sailed with the First Fleet almost 250 years ago, whose journals still survive. And that’s what makes this thoughtful play so poignant.

Award winning drama given a fresh new face

Lyric Hammersmith Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan (A Doll’s House, Iphigenia in Splott) directs this award-winner, which has an illustrious history behind it. Back in 2012 it was nominated for the Manchester Theatre Award for Best Visiting Production (Original Theatre Company). In 1988 it won the Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play. It also won a BBC Award for the Play of the Year in the same year along with a nomination for Director of the Year.

1991 saw it nominated for a total of six Tony Awards, winning the 1991 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.

Playing at Lyric Hammersmith

King Street, Lyric Square, London, W6 0QL GB (venue info)

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