Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker

STAGE/SET Peter McKintosh
1. White powder on floor all around raised circular platform
  1. Red lights shone onto it. Made powder glow vibrant red colour
    1. Effect of sand - dry, hot conditions
2. Drum revolve stage
  1. Big, circular wooden platform which rotated and could split in half. One half would rise to give another level
    1. Effective when accentuating different classes between captains/lieutenants and convicts
3. Cyclorama on back wall
  1. Aboriginal artwork displayed here
    1. Blue, orange, red stripes going horizontally across- feel of being in foreign country
4. National Olivier Theatre
5. Stage props
  1. Brown, cuboid, wooden boxes scattered on circular platform
    1. Cargo on/from ship
  2. Multiple hangman's nooses hung from metal bar which was suspended in air from ceiling. Some hang down. Some wrap around bar
    1. There all the time- constant reminder to audience Liz Morden is about to hang. Eerie/shocking effect
GENRE
1. Epic Theatre
  1. Linear - narrative (runs in chronological order)
  2. Happens over a long time
  3. Larger than life - characters are representative
  4. Lots of events
Style
1. Realism
  1. Representational characters
  2. 19th Century theatrical movement seeking to portray real life on stage
LIGHTING Neil Austin
1. When light comes from above/in front- light, happy, sunshine (for captains)
2. When light comes from below/behind- shadowy, dark (for the convicts)
3. Opening scene with Aborigine. Yellow, warm light onto backcloth. Shone from below-casts huge shadow of character
4. Use of very bright, intense light - unforgiving feel of heat. Used with red to emphasise
5. Prison scene - dark - picked up outlines of people. Gobo used to project bars onto floor. Haze machine used and yellow light was shone through it to create dank, dusty atmosphere. Small highlights on Liz Morden. Picking her out of darkness
DIFFERENCES TO ORIGINAL PLAY
1. Aborigine speaks foreign language (by the end speaks english - colonisation)
2. Use of songs - distraction? lose power of message?
3. Casting - doubling up
  1. Gives message - everyone has potential to be both convict and captain
POLITICAL MESSAGE
1. How do we treat/punish/reward
2. Power of ART
3. Colonisation - impacts on Aborigine
  1. Aborigine gets ill - pustules on his skin

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Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker

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	Created by Meredith A almost 9 years ago