Bradford Playhouse is this week staging a play-within-a-play about British convicts settling in 18th century Australia.
Our Country’s Good is based around the history of the first convict fleet to arrive in Australia in 1789, where prisoners lived alongside guards and men outnumbered women.
It was the slice of history that inspired Jimmy McGovern’s hit BBC2 drama Banished.
The play directed by Jono Gadsby, who says it examines “social relationships based on power, the bartering of goods and sex, and the notion that established assumptions can be challenged.”
“It looks at theatre and drama as form of redemption and questions its place in society,” he adds. “It’s a powerful play and a quality production. We’ve brought in two-and-a-half tons of sand, over a ton of wood, and a lot of extra lighting, and we have a professional costumier who has created an amazing wardrobe. We’re aiming for it to be as close to West End production values as possible.”
The play is the theatre’s community production.It runs until Saturday.
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