Our Country's Good - 1st June 2012

First produced at the Royal Court theatre in 1988, “Our Country’s Good” was one of three plays recently performed at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. It tells the story of convicts transported to Australia in the late 18th century and their harsh treatment by their captors.

We see an unrelenting circle of misdemeanours and punishment until the enlightened Ralph Clark attempts to impress the Governor by getting the prisoners to put on a play. His choice of George Farquhar’s ”The Recruiting Officer” has more in common with the privileged class than this underclass.

The play is broken-up with a lot of mini-scenes allowing the set designers, assistants and actors to show how organised they are to cope with these technically difficult changes. However, I felt that so many scenes broke up any real emotional intensity, which coupled with the fact that the cast played more than one role made it hard to get involved with the characters, especially at the beginning.

Gradually, though you get used to this frenetic style and the ending is rather moving. The acting is solid throughout with Gillian Saker excelling as Liz Morden with Alex Griffin-Griffiths stealing the show as Robert Sideway who enjoys acting a little too much.

This was an enjoyable evening though I was expecting more substance to the play. There were few surprises along the way and the ending, however uplifting, was predictable. Not as impressive as my last visit here to see “Clybourne Park” but perhaps that was too much to ask.

Minsk 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker - 30th May 2012

Having missed this critically acclaimed play at last year’s Edinburgh festival I was determined not to miss one of it’s two dates at the Sherman Theatre. I wasn’t disappointed.

This is a piece (mainly) created by the cast to demonstrate the repression of any hint of free speech by the Belarus government. This is perfectly indicated in the opening scene where the actors are arrested for a variety of trivial events ranging from unfurling flags to clapping or playing a musical instrument.

However, this is not always an easy watch. The performers all speak Russian but the surtitles enable us to follow events on stage and some moments are purely visual eg, when a naked actress is body painted then totally covered in paper.

The most emotional part of the evening occurs right at the end when all the actors have a solo moment to discuss their own personal experiences of arrests, sackings, exile and forced separation from their loved ones.

This is theatre at its most visceral and riveting. Congratulations to Sherman Cymru for staging it and for the Belarus Free theatre coming to tell their story. Long may they continue to inform and entertain . A must see.