Summary
The company provided an enjoyable evening's entertainment telling the story of the difficulties facing both the convicts and the officers in the first Australian penal colony established in 1788. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play is a powerful piece of drama depicting the attempts of The Governor to bring a degree of civilisation to the colony through the vehicle of a play to be performed by some of the convicts under the direction of one of his junior officers.

Report
The play opened with the stark set dominated by a large backcloth hung to represent the sail of a convict ship en route from England to Australia and a group of convicts listening to an officer calling out the number of lashes being given to a convict seen backlit through the sail. The opening's brutal conditions were enhanced by the eerie sound of the ship's creaking progress and lighting that highlighted the ship’s movement.

Timberlake Wertenbaker’s story of the struggle of Governor Arthur Phillips to provide some form of civilising experience to the dehumanised convicts brutally transported from their home country to the inhospitable settlement that was to become Sydney is very powerful. The play works on a number of levels being informative, humorous, horrifying and entertaining all at the same time.

The play is written so that the parts of the convicts and those of the officers can be played by the same actors. This is a huge challenge for the cast and one that is sometimes avoided by double casting i.e. a cast of officers and a cast of convicts. It was a brave decision of the directors to opt for the single cast and one that the cast responded to with success. This achievement must have been accomplished through sheer hard work from the cast, the directors, Richard Frampton & Giles Checkley and the rest of the company.

The officers have to show how their superficial civilisation masks their own selfish interests and in some cases inhuman cruelty towards the convicts.

The convicts have to show their development from being broken spirits to responsive human beings through performing in Ralph’s play.

Mike Ainsworth, Ralph, had to deal with the challenge of representing a man caught between a series of conflicts between himself, his military command, his love for both his wife and Mary Brenham, the convict that he falls for. Mike was convincing in his role.

Ian Pring as The Governor played the part of the senior civil servant brought back to service in circumstances that were clearly extremely difficult. Ian easily conveyed the thoughtfulness of The Governor and the difficult balancing act that he had to maintain. As John Wisehammer Ian had the more difficult role as his physical presence was still commanding.

Stuart Butler as Harry Brewer gave good performance of the ordinary seaman’s position, his manic demise and death. Good support was given to the part by Rachel Tozer as a very attractive Duckling [Rachel also gave an amusing and very unattractive Meg Long]. Stuart carried the demented aspect of his character over into his portrayal of the almost deranged Captain Campbell.

Jay Cunliffe was excellent as Robbie Ross the contemptuous hard man of the military and genuinely showed a convincing change in presentation as the almost equally despised yet caring Ketch Freeman.

Sally Hudson gave a credible Mary Brenham developing from a shy introverted soul in the shadow of Dabby Bryant into an engaging ‘wife’ for Ralph.

Orna Joseph maintained the West Country accent of a Dabby Bryant who had seemingly prospered from her exploitation of the other convicts. In real life Dabby did succeed in escaping from the penal colony and made it back to her beloved Devon and this production made that possibility entirely credible.

Tracey Childs gave us a hard-bitten Liz Morden that was entirely in keeping with the character and provided the turning point for the convicts in their development towards The Governor’s goal of civilisation.

Daniel Comens and Benjamin Ellis provided good support in their respective roles as both ‘officers’ and ‘convicts’ to the telling of the story.

The aborigine is a part that can be developed to advantage but was left as a backlit representation with sound over. I particularly liked the luminous painting of the stage side panels showing aboriginal dreamtime.

The costumes are a difficult aspect of this play particularly where the cast is doubling up. The convicts have to look dishevelled and rough which is relatively easy to achieve while the officers have to look commanding which is not easy and expensive. Clearly the production budget could not accommodate a full uniform but perhaps the addition of hats to the sashes would have been possible.

The play is a powerful piece of theatre, which works with the minimum of staging and props and the company provided good yet unobtrusive support where necessary. The lighting plot conveyed the time of day and the feeling of various scenes, as did the sound plot. Both added to the ambience particularly of the Australian outback nights and the aboriginal interjections.

The Front Of House team were attentive and welcoming as was the catering team with their constantly improving offerings.

I thought that your handbill and programme was, yet again, striking and I liked the programme notes.

Once again an enjoyable evening’s entertainment, thank you.