Company of Our Country's Good at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Photo Marc Brenner.Based largely on Thomas Keneally's The Playmaker, Timberlake Wertenbaker's 1988 tale of convicts and one marine's efforts to civilise them by getting them to mount a production of George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer, is a play of two distinct halves.
The first, firmly lays the foundations for a play about them and us, the imprisoned and the gaolers, the appalling injustices of the justice system, corruption, bullying, double-standards and a yearning for aspiration over ignorance. It is dour, maudlin and unremittingly bleak. Few of the characters appear to have many redeeming qualities save a wish for things to be better than they are - irrespective of whether the improvement comes at another's cost.
The second half takes a must lighter tone as the play rehearsals begin to reveal the personalities of each individual. As their familiarity with the text and their characters develop, so too does their confidence, enabling each to discard their feelings of shame and develop a sense of self-worth and humanity.
Rachel O'Riordan directs the actors who collectively present as a ragtag group of misfits, each assigned various roles. Notable in this cast on opening night were Ruby Bentall, Aliyah Odoffin and the ever dependable Finbar Lynch who excelled as the caustic villain of the piece, Major Robbie Ross, eclipsing everyone with his coldhearted stillness.
In a noteworthy update to the material, a cultural consultant was brought on board serving to navigate the tricky reevaluation of historical perspectives — specifically here, the wholesale unwanted colonisation of a territory previously occupied by First Nation groups who saw themselves as belonging to the land, rather than the land belonging to them. Naarah plays Killara who at intervals delivers an outsiders view of the encroaching land grab and the new settlers' behaviours, which appear so alien and at odds with what has gone before.
