[1] In 1789 in Sydney Cove, the remotest penal colony of the British Empire, a group of convicts and one of their captors unite to stage a play.

As felons, perjurers, thieves, and whores rehearse, their playmaker, Ralph Clark, is derided by authority.

For the play's power is mirrored in the rich, varied life of this primitive land, and, not least, in the convict and actress Mary Brenham.

The play that they plan to stage is The Recruiting Officer, a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers.

The novel was adapted into a play in 1988 by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, called Our Country's Good.