image of person or book cover 7340587738554609194.jpg
This image has been sourced from Amazon
y separately published work icon Our Country's Good single work   drama  
Adaptation of The Playmaker Thomas Keneally , 1987 single work novel
Issue Details: First known date: 1988... 1988 Our Country's Good
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Notes

  • Commentary and notes by Bill Naismith. Minor title variations appear in different imprints.
  • Winner of the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Foreign Play.

Production Details

  • First performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 1988. It was then toured in Australia in 1989 and returned to the Royal Court, after which it was transferred to the Garrick Theatre, London in 1989, opened at the Hartford Stage, Connecticut in 1990, and on Broadway in 1991. It is also in the repertoire at the National Theatre, Bucharest.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Methuen Drama ,
      1991 .
      image of person or book cover 4411516156605294108.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 91p.
      Edition info: Rev. ed.
      Note/s:
      • Dedication: 'In memory of John Price'.
      • Contains Preface by the author in which she dicusses attending a drama performance in a prison - HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Following the Preface are copies of the letters she received from some of the prisoners afterward.
      ISBN: 0413659003
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Methuen Drama ,
      1995 .
      image of person or book cover 6988511847057817275.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Amazon
      Extent: xlvii, 96p.p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 0413692302
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Methuen ,
      1998 .
      image of person or book cover 7574649417698114986.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: [25], 91p.p.
      ISBN: 0413737403
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Nick Hern Books ,
      2010 .
      image of person or book cover 2117842723372634571.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 114p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 7 November 2010
      ISBN: 9781848420434

Works about this Work

Fiction and Fakements in Colonial Australia Jonathan Lamb , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Studies , September vol. 23 no. 3 2020; (p. 360-370)

'The imaginations of convicts in Australia became attuned to the pairing of opposites and this led to strange tensions in their way of representing things. On Norfolk Island the meanings of words were reversed, so that ‘good’ meant ‘bad’ and ‘ugly’ meant ‘beautiful’. This undermining of official meanings produced the argot called the ‘flash’ or ‘kiddy’ language of the colony. Designed at first to keep private sentiments from being inspected, it eventually supported a system of dissident actions called ‘cross-work’ or ‘cross doings’. One word loomed large amidst these inversions: ‘fakement’, meaning booty, forgery or deceit. The verb has more extensive meanings: rob, wound, shatter; ‘fake your slangs’ means break your shackles. It also meant performing a fiction and accepting the consequences of it.' (Publication abstract)

Travel and Empire in Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good Yi-chin Shih , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: CLCWeb : Comparative Literature and Culture , vol. 14 no. 5 2012;
'In her article "Travel and Empire in Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good" Yi-chin Shih analyzes Our Country's Good from the perspective of travel in order to explore the exercise of empire and the practice of resistance. Considered as one of the luminaries in British theater, Timberlake Wertenbaker (1951-) has produced several successful works, especially Our Country's Good (1988), which won her a Laurence Olivier Award for the Best Play and solidified her reputation as an important playwright in world theater. Our Country's Good is based on real historical facts about the First Fleet's transportation of criminals from England to Australia to build New South Wales in 1787. Shih explores aspects of travel in the early colonial period of Australian history and its relationship between travel and empire.' (Publication abstract)
Menacing Pitfalls in Looking on Bright Side Mark Hopkins , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29 July 2008; (p. 16)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
Pros and Cons Katrina Lobley , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25 July 2008; (p. 11)
Caryl Churchill's Top Girls and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good as Contributions to a Definition of Culture Christine Bimberg , 1998 single work criticism
— Appears in: Connotations , vol. 7 no. 3 1998; (p. 399-416)
Menacing Pitfalls in Looking on Bright Side Mark Hopkins , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 29 July 2008; (p. 16)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
A Review of Two Cities Barry Oakley , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Independent Monthly , July 1989; (p. 52)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
Cheerful Misery Brian Hoad , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 20 June 1989; (p. 128)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
Letting Fine Acting Happen Ken Healey , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Review , July no. 14 1989; (p. 21-22)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
Serious Slap and Tickle Brian Hoad , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 4 July 1989; (p. 10)

— Review of Our Country's Good Timberlake Wertenbaker , 1988 single work drama
Pros and Cons Katrina Lobley , 2008 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25 July 2008; (p. 11)
Our Country's Good: Theatre Colony and Nation in Wertenbaker's Adaptation of `The Playmaker' Ann Wilson , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: Modern Drama , March vol. 34 no. 1 1991; (p. 23-34)
Theatrical Conviction Tim Lloyd , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 30 June 1990; (p. 4)
Courting History Michele Field , 1989 single work column
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 30 May 1989; (p. 113)
Playing Convicts Ron Banks , 1991 single work criticism
— Appears in: The West Australian Magazine , 25 May 1991; (p. 22-25)

Awards

1988 winner Olivier Awards BBC Award for Best New Play
Last amended 3 Nov 2021 16:19:31
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  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • Bush,
  • 1780s
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