This is a play set during the first years of the colony in Australia. It begins with the gaolers trying to work out how to keep order amongst the convicts, as well as how to keep the company alive until the next supply ship comes in (the colony was on a knife edge for survival for over a decade at the start). One of the junior officers suggests a play would be a way of buillding morale and solidarity amongst the people trapped in the distant place, and convicts are asked to become actors. The idea is not well received, though, amongst some of the officers and it is almost stopped a number of times. In the end, after much pain, suffering, privation, a few lashings and some hangings, the play is performed to much relief and acclaim (and the supply ship arrives, though that’s another story).
This is a very ambitious play based on the research of Robert Hughes and Thomas Kenneally. The young cast worked very hard to convey the emotions of people years older than them, and people who had been through horrific experiences. For the most part it worked well and I commend the cast for the bravery in performing this piece. The only jarring note for me was the two ‘aborigines’ who came on stage at times and spoke words from the dreamtime. It just doesn’t work fron white people in a English accent. but still a play well worth seeing if you enjoy historical and emotive stories.
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