In a brand-new production, Timberlake Wertenbaker revisits her seminal play Our Country's Good and examines justice and power in the British justice system at the Lyric Hammersmith.
“Spewed from our country, forgotten, bound to the dark edge of the earth…”
It's 1788. James Freeman, aged 25. Transported 14 years for assault on a sailor. Thomas Barrett, aged 17. Transported seven years for stealing one ewe sheep. Dorothy Handland, aged 82. Stole a Biscuit. A British penal ship, sailing 15,000 miles Australia, is packed with Britain’s convicts who will serve out their sentence in the colony – the punishment for their crimes.
Following the long and life-threatening voyage, they finally dock in Australia. But keeping discipline in the colony is a brutal job, and cruelty is rife.
To attempt to ‘civilise’ this often desperate, poverty-stricken, violent group, and keep the convicts in line, an ambitious young lieutenant, Ralph Clark, decides they should perform a play. With rising mistrust amongst the ranks, a mostly illiterate cast, and the leading actor in the show facing the gallows, this is truly a one-of-a-kind production…
Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan directs this Olivier award-winning play based on extraordinary true events during the early years of Australia’s first penal colony. With deportation as punishment finding a new relevance in today's society, the message of Our Country’s Good takes on new meaning in 2024.