Timberlake Wertenbaker

Set in the dusty wilderness of the first Australian convict colony, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1988 drama follows the efforts of young, idealistic Royal Marine officer Ralph Clark to educate the vice-ridden convicts through the medium of theatre. Proposing that the prisoners put on a production of George Farquhar’s Restoration comedy...

I recently visited Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice and was struck by the exhibitions about men and women punished with transportation to Australia. It’s a strange and scary thought, to be sent halfway across the world for a crime that nowadays wouldn’t warrant a prison sentence- and so I was...

This week, Impact Arts speaks to Laura Thornton and Joe Strickland, director and producer respectively of the New Theatre’s latest in-house production: Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from Thomas Keneally’s novel The Playmaker. Firstly, what is ‘Our Country’s Good’ about? Joe: Our Country’s Good follows the lives...