With the Arts under serious threat in the market place and in education, the revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play, which explores the redemptive power of Theatre, could hardly be timelier. Max Stafford-Clark’s new production confirms what everybody thought when he first staged it 25 years ago: namely that it is a modern classic. The drama, based on The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally, was inspired by a real event in the penal colony at Sydney Cove, New South Wales in 1789 when the convicts performed George Farquhar’s comedy, The Recruiting Officer, the first time it had been performed in Australia. The Governor-General, a liberal man, who argues that justice must be tempered with humanity, thinks it is his duty to educate the criminals. For him Theatre is an expression of civilisation. His brother officers are not of his persuasion and do everything they can to stop the production, even to flogging (100 lashes) and hanging the cast.
There is a good joke when one of the convicts, rehearsing, complains that if they start doubling the parts, the audience will become confused. It is funny because most of the actors in Wertenbaker’s play are already playing two roles. The officer, who is directing the convicts, assures the cast that the audience won’t be confused if they are paying attention. The convict wonders about those who are not paying attention. “People who can’t pay attention should not go to the theatre,” replies the director.