Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play, based on Thomas Keneally’s, Playmaker, is a work that for the most part preaches to the converted (theatre-goer), having at its core the idea that literature and theatre in particular, can be a humanizing and civilizing medium. Sad to say then that too many of our countrymen and women are (at least those with hands on the purse-strings) unconverted and that the thrust of such works is no less urgent today as at any previous time in recent history.
The story, based on real events in the early British colonization of Australia, revolves around the staging by convicts and servicemen of a performance of Farquhar’s, The Recruiting Officer. The idea is that, as the Enlightenment gave way to Romanticism the previously neglected imagination and human emotions were seen as important factors in building not only rounded, law abiding individuals, but also and in virtue of that fact, society itself. Together with the nature/nurture ideas of Rousseau the matter is thrashed out at some length in a heated liberal versus conservative debate about justice – barbaric by our standards – and redemption.
What the play does well is to bring these ideas to the stage without being reduced to clunkingly dull set pieces of polemic. The characters are all vivid and well drawn by the strong, gender and colour-blind casting. From Tom Andrews’ humane Governor Phillip and Richard Neal’s ruthless Major Ross to Victoria Gee’s lippy and homesick Mary Bryant and Kathryn O’Reilly’s hardened Liz Morden, director Max Stafford-Clark has balanced the elements of the clash of ideas and personalities in a finely tuned piece of theatre.
He manages to get some fun out of the rehearsals for the play-within-a-play in a scene reminiscent of the rude mechanicals of a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Again, in amongst the apparent bickering, there is the tension between two opposing ideas, in this case ‘pretence’ (or imagination) versus ‘reality’. Holding things together manfully is the figure of the compassionate, Ralph Clark, played with convincing, crusading fervour by Nathan Ives-Moiba. Ralph is the would-be director anxious to share his bed with his talented leading lady, Mary Brenham (Jessica Tomchak).
Tim Shortall’s spare, but effective set gives the director a certain freedom which is supported by Andy Smith’s, at times exotic, sound-scape and Johanna Town’s subtly atmospheric lighting.
This is an Out of Joint production from Bolton’s Octagon, which is due to make its way across the pond where this timely version will hopefully be received with as much critical acclaim as the original production of twenty-five years ago. ★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles
