OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD
by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Performed by Ripley Productions (Ripley St Thomas School)
The Dukes, Moor Lane, Lancaster
Thursday 5 January 2005 (for one night only)

reviewed by Michael Nunn

I only knew Ripley St Thomas for the gardening until …
Although I had not previously seen any of their theatre work (apart from a visit some time ago to their excellent horticultural enterprise), I understand that Ripley St Thomas' School has a good reputation for its creative and performing arts. And after last Thursday night, I am more than happy to confirm that report.

As the helpful programme notes explain, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker (b1951) depicts the transportation of a group of convicts from the UK to Australia in 1790. As they settle there, an exception among the mainly brutish officers, the gentle and enlightened Second Lt Ralph Clark, attempts to make life slightly more tolerable for his charges by putting on a performance of The Recruiting Officer (written in 1706), a comedy by George Farquhar (c1667 – 1707).

Farquhar was Irish, and it is ironic that his original work is used in a contemporary play on the savagery of English colonialism and repression. In the twentieth century, The Recruiting Officer had also attracted the attention of another eminent playwright, Bertolt Brecht, who modelled his own Trumpets and Drums of 1955 on The Recruiting Officer only some thirty years before Wertenbaker.

In Our Country's Good, despite the sneers, jeers and wilful interference of his fellow officers, and some initial resistance and, later, varying degrees of co-operation from the convicts themselves, the Farquhar play is finally mounted. The Wertenbaker play, though, operates on many more levels than simple narrative. It looks at, for example, the power of the arts to civilise the human condition; the cruelty of the ruling classes in the late eighteenth century and, perhaps easier to see, the striking diversity of the finely-drawn characters and their often complex and changing relationships.

A thoughtful staging
Our Country's Good, then, is a strangely powerful piece of theatre, and it was a revelation to see how well Producer and Director Marion Plowright brought out skills, understanding and achievements not usually associated with youngsters in their A-level years. The play demands a cast of some two dozen actors, and with some adroit doubling there was still a cast of twenty.

The staging, in The Dukes' main house, was simple and effective. A professional associate with whom I chatted in the interval said he had seen the original production at The Royal Court in London in 1987, and felt the Ripley staging was more direct and effective than the original. A few enormous muslin curtains and some minimal props, with some intelligent movements and direction, well evoked the varying locations of the play, on board ship, officers' tents, prison cells, a rowing boat in Sydney Harbour, and backstage at a theatre. The striking period costume was further evidence of attention to detail, and the red of the officers' regal elegance contrasted well with the drab garb of the convicts.

I was uneasy early on during the show about the choices of music – from Corelli, Bach and Mozart to Vaughan Williams and a striking ‘basic' idiom – but as the action progressed and tensions heightened, I felt that those unusual choices complemented the text and the rest of the production. I had similar initial doubts about amplifying the role of the Aboriginal Australian, but it gradually became apparent that this character had an almost supernatural role in the action.

But you really want to know about the acting …
Which I can hardly fault, though the diction could have been clearer in places. There was some fine characterisation from all members of the cast, officers and convicts alike, though I was disappointed that a number of the officers' roles were played by women. I sincerely hope this is not because the male students consider it ‘sissy' or ‘girly' to be doing drama.

There was clear evidence of hard work and a painstaking approach, for example, in the body language, facial expressions, variety of pace and dynamics. It was also clear that the cast thoroughly understood what the different levels of the play were about. This can only be the result of sheer hard work, and I understand the play had been in rehearsal since before the summer holiday last year. Labor vincit omnia …

The ensemble playing was particularly commendable, in that those playing the larger roles supported those with fewer lines and relatively minor characters. Although I dislike picking only a few names to praise, Sarah Robin as the determinedly gobby Devonian, Craig Walkden as the tormented Midshipman Harry Brewer (his paranoid soliloquy was a particularly moving moment), and Kieran Docherty as the gentle Lt Clark stood out as three among the many others in the cast with great ability and potential.

"This is the theatre. We will believe you'
The full dramatic potential, then, of this moving piece of theatre was fully explored and admirably presented by the cast, crew and all the others from Ripley St Thomas who gave us a very creditable and credible show which was well worthy of its venue. When (and what) is their next Dukes production?

For me, you can forget television, take the cinema or leave it, and ban all computer games. I like the live arts to get me going. I also found this production particularly exciting as it is clear evidence that young people are being dragged away from their games consoles and encouraged to work, enjoy and learn in front of live audiences instead. And the audience was largely young: my colleague from the interval also felt it was "good to see the house so full of young people.'

That night left me in no doubt at all that the dramatic arts in Lancaster are so much healthier than in some of the other places in the country I have lived.

Copyright © 5 January 2005 Michael Nunn
With thanks to Craig Dewar for his kind assistance

LINKS:
Ripley St Thomas School

Some useful information and links on George Farquharl

.. and on Timberlake Wertenbaker, with a good critique of Our Country's Good

Her interview on the BBC's Woman's Hour can be heard here.