Our Country's Good is a 1988 play written by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from the Thomas Keneally novel The Playmaker.
The story concerns a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales, in the 1780s, who put on a production of The Recruiting Officer.
It was first staged at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 10 September 1988, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.
As part of their research, Stafford-Clark and Wertenbaker went to see a play performed by convicts at Wormwood Scrubs, which proved inspiring: "in prison conditions, theatre can be hugely heartening and influential and indeed in prison your options are so limited you can become a born-again Christian, a gym-queen constantly working out, a bird watcher or you become passionate about theatre."
Throughout the play, he comments on the British settlement's effect on the indigenous populations, reacting with curiosity, confusion, and finally fear.
Ralph chooses George Farquhar's restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer and holds auditions.
Some of the convicts who audition are Meg Long, an aged prostitute; Robert Sideway, a flamboyant pickpocket; the shy Mary Brenham; her more outspoken friend Dabby Bryant; and the hardened criminal Liz Morden.
Ralph offers Mary the main female role of Silvia and reluctantly agrees that Dabby can play Rose.
One evening, the officers discuss theatre, punishment, criminality and morality, and debate the value of Ralph's project.
Mary feels inadequate to play a noble lady, as she is ashamed of having sold herself to a sailor on the ship for food.
A Jewish convict, John Wisehammer, engages Mary in a conversation about the meanings and sounds of words; she suggests he also take part in the play.
At the first rehearsal, two actors, Kable and Arscott, are missing; Sideway overacts, and Liz can't act at all.
In his tent, Harry Brewer sees the ghosts of the two men he hanged, including his rival Handy Baker.
As the rehearsal continues, Sideway and Liz begin to enter more fully into their parts, boldly using the full length of the room and interacting with the others.
Dabby complains that she can't relate to her character, but Wisehammer argues that a play should teach you something new.
They also discuss the future: Dabby plans to escape that night; Sideway wants to start a theatre company; Liz and Freeman want to join Sideway's company as actors and Wisehammer as playwright; Mary and Ralph plan their lives together.
The play's first production was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 10 September 1988, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.
The production starred David Haig as Ralph Clark, Jim Broadbent as Harry Brewer, John Arscott and Captain Campbell, Linda Bassett as Lieutenant Will Dawes and Liz Morden, and Ron Cook as Captain Arthur Phillip and John Wisehammer.
[1] "Our Country's Good" made its American premier at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 1989, directed by Max Stafford-Clark of England’s Royal Court Theatre, and Les Waters the associate artistic director.
Our Country's Good premiered on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1991, and closed on June 8, 1991, after 12 previews and 48 performances.
The play was performed at the Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre, directed by Caroline Hall and featuring Louise Gold as Lieutenant Will Dawes and Liz Morden.