'Our Country's Good' review – this stirring play about the power of theatre has never been more potent

Read our review of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country's Good, about 18th-century convicts and soldiers who stage a show together, now in performances at the Lyric Hammersmith to 5 October.

What a ripe time for a revival of Our Country’s Good, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1788-set drama about a colony of British convicts in Australia and the soldiers who stage a play with them as an exercise in rehabilitation. With our current British arts sector withered from 14 years of underfunding, and thousands of migrants having lived under the threat of deportation until the recent Government handover, Wertenbaker’s persuasive musings on the power of theatre to humanise and reform have perhaps never been more potent.

In an Australian settlement, a listless, motley crew of petty criminals (some deported for crimes as small as stealing food) are united in one thing: their nostalgia for Englishness. A suggestion by Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark (Simon Manyonda) that they work together to stage a production of George Farquhar’s Shrewsbury-set The Recruiting Officer brings them closer to their home country, albeit via a world of gentry unfamiliar to the convicts. (The irony of sexually and morally corrupt soldiers staging a play about exploitative soldiers is not lost, either.)

But beyond reminding them of home, creating a show together proves an equalising, collaborative task that makes the soldiers and prisoners see one another as human. This is the quietly political message of Wertenbaker’s modern masterpiece, brought to life here by a cracking cast of British theatre talent.

While it’s funny watching Clark unsubtly trying to woo convict Mary Brenham (Ruby Bentall) through the guise of his character, or the prisoners arguing about who gets to say which lines, it’s through the debate between the soldiers as to whether art is an effective tool for reintegration, or whether the deportees would be more use to the colony if put to manual labour, that Wertenbaker makes her case that theatre can build community, give purpose, and drive change. As her honourable Captain Arthur Phillip (Harry Kershaw) points out, “a play is a world in itself, a tiny colony”.

Rachel O’Riordan’s production skilfully balances this serious messaging with humour. Bentall is brilliant at multi-roleing between the potty-mouthed Meg Long (a character deserving of a reappearance), the bumbling Reverend Johnson, and timid-until-sexually-awakened Mary. And Nick Fletcher's Robert Sideway, a pickpocket who fancies himself a thesp, is entertainingly flamboyant.

Wertenbaker herself has had input on this revival, tweaking her original 1988 text to lend it maximum impact in the current climate, and giving the character once named simply “An Aboriginal Australian” a name. She’s Killara (Naarah), the play’s sole First Nation voice, who narrates her people’s perspective of the foreigners who have arrived but not looked to integrate.

This lack of care for the land they've taken over is further highlighted by Gary McCann’s set of scorched red earth and burnt-out bush that grows more littered as the show goes up on, with beer cans, plastic bags and crisp packets strewn between the branches.

McCann’s costumes, too, have contemporary influences offsetting the story’s 18th century date stamp: underneath old military jackets, the soldiers wear jeans and T-shirts, while the women wear trainers. A reminder, perhaps, that the corrupt practices of deporters and traffickers documented in the play are still with us.

A timely revival indeed, and a clever one.

Our Country's Good is at the Lyric Hammersmith through 5 October. Book Our Country's Good tickets on London Theatre.

Photo credit: Our Country's Good (Photographs by Marc Brenner)