This 1988 play won every award going on its first outing at the Royal Court and subsequently on Broadway. A quarter of a century on, its contention that the creation of drama has a humanising effect on society’s rejects is as powerful and affecting as ever.
The setting is a penal colony in New South Wales in the 1780s, where a theatre-loving soldier defies his brutish superior officer to produce Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer with a ramshackle company of newly deported English convicts.
Luckily for Lieutenant Clark (Christopher Harper), the Governor of NSW (Aden Gillet) is a progressive liberal thinker who thoroughly approves of Clark’s initiative, despite its unpromising provenance. For Clark’s adversaries, the play is simply a means of undermining the colony’s cruel and draconian regime.
An ensemble piece such as this has no need of elaborate staging, which is just as well because Alastair Whatley’s revival falls into the “two planks and a passion” category, throwing all the dramatic onus on to his generally excellent cast.
This is by no means a definitive revival - the pace slackens at times and it needs a lot more energy in the lead up to the final performance - but its importance as a reminder that drama can, and does, play a vital role in penal reform is unassailable.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
Content is copyright © 2012 The Stage Media Company Limited unless otherwise stated.
All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)
