Our Country’s Good – Drama Students visit the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith
On Wednesday 25th September, Y11, Y12 and Y13 Drama Students enjoyed an exciting theatre trip when then visited the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith and saw the new revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s award-winning play, Our Country’s Good.
Originally produced in 1988, the play explores a true historical event about the society of the first British colonists in Australia in 1788. Some were transported convicts and others the officers charged with guarding them as they built what would eventually become Sydney. In a social experiment, the enlightened governor suggests putting on a play with the convicts, a controversial idea which some officers found very unpopular. The play explores themes of rehabilitation versus punitive justice and examines the power of theatre to transform, as some of the prisoners and the officers find new ways to see themselves and share common ground through their experience. This revival of Our Country’s Good also explores in more depth how the colonists were viewed from the point of view of the indigenous Australians with new input from the First Nation Australian Commission. The play was exciting and energetic and very well received by our Drama students.
