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Our Country’s Good 2024
Opened: September 6, 2024Closing: October 05, 2024
Our Country’s Good - West End History , Info & More
Lyric Hammersmith
King Street London
“Spewed from our country, forgotten, bound to the dark edge of the earth…”
Thomas Barrett, aged 17. Transported seven years for stealing one ewe sheep.
James Freeman, aged 25. Transported 14 years for assault on a sailor.
Dorothy Handland, aged 82. Stole a biscuit.
A ship, sailing 15,000 miles to Australia, is crammed with Britain’s convicts – a punishment for their crimes. After a life-threatening voyage they arrive in 1788. But keeping the colony disciplined is a brutal job, and cruelty is rife. To keep the convicts in line and attempt to ‘civilise’ this often desperate, violent, poverty stricken group, a young ambitious lieutenant, Ralph Clark, decides they should perform a play.
With a mostly illiterate cast, rising mistrust amongst the ranks, and the leading actor facing the gallows, this is a one of a kind theatre production…
In this brand new production, Timberlake Wertenbaker revisits her seminal play examining power and justice in the British justice system. Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan (A Doll’s House, Iphigenia in Splott) directs this Olivier award winning classic based on the extraordinary true story of Australia’s first penal colony. With deportation as punishment more relevant than ever before, Our Country’s Good takes on new meaning in 2024.
__Accessible Performances__
Thursday 19 September – Open Captioned Performance
Saturday 21 September, 2.30pm – Chilled Performance
Saturday 28 September, 2,30pm – Audio Described Performance
Monday 30 September – BSL Interpreted Performance
Our Country’s Good - - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Our Country’s Good
Review: OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
7 / 10
The production's strengths lie in its powerful performances and its ability to draw parallels between historical injustices and contemporary issues. However, it occasionally overplays the meta-theme of actors playing actors, risking distraction from the core narrative. While Our Country's Good speaks to a 2024 audience in many ways, it feels like a missed opportunity to more fully engage with the ongoing conversation about colonisation and its impact on First Nations people. The perspective presented feels somewhat limited given the emotional weight attached to these issues in contemporary Australia and the UK.
Review: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, Lyric Hammersmith
6 / 10
But a missing human touch is needed to counterbalance the heavy concepts. The tangled romances between the marines and convicts feel underwritten and overwrought through uncalibrated performances. As individuals the characters lack gravity, they are only ever parts to the whole. It’s why the ensemble sequences really fizzle. Squabbles during rehearsals flecked with self-conscious jabs at pretentious theatre culture effortlessly blossom into the wider politics.
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Review Roundup: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD at Lyric Hammersmith
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 12, 2024
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 12, 2024
See what the critics are saying about Our Country's Good at Lyric Hammersmith. Read the reviews and learn more about the show.
Review: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, Lyric Hammersmith
by Alexander Cohen - September 12, 2024
by Alexander Cohen - September 12, 2024
Is it serendipity or a testament to good writing? A day after the government mandate two thousand prisoners to enjoy an early release a new production of Our Country’s Good premieres: a play about deported British convicts forging a new life in newly colonised Australia couldn’t be timelier.
Photos: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD At Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
by A.A. Cristi - September 9, 2024
by A.A. Cristi - September 9, 2024
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has released a first look at the production of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Olivier Award-winning classic Our Country’s Good, directed by Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan. See photos from the production.
Photos: OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in Rehearsal
by Blair Ingenthron - August 25, 2024
by Blair Ingenthron - August 25, 2024
Lyric Hammersmith Theatre has released a sneak peek into rehearsals for the major revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Olivier Award-winning classic Our Country’s Good, directed by Artistic Director Rachel O’Riordan. Check out the photos here!
Our Country’s Good History
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