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Mainstage: Fall 2011

What is the role of theater in society? Is it the expression of civilization? Or does it undermine society? In Timberlake Wertenbakers’s 1988 play, Our Country’s Good, these questions are front and center for those in the fledgling naval outpost of Sidney Cove.

To replace the usual entertainments of hangings and floggings in the penal colony, the Governor suggests that his mostly illiterate wards stage a play. A rigorous debate ensues among those in charge. One argues that theater is “an expression of civilization” and provides a humanizing influence on the convicts. Another counters that theater is merely a mindless entertainment to “wile away the hours of the idle.” The colony decides to produce George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer even though one officer senses danger: “I know this play — this play— order will become disorder.”

Based upon actual facts, Our Country’s Good exposes the consequences of England’s export of convicts to Australia in the late 1700s for the aboriginals, the British exiles and their naval guards. Wertenbaker has said that theater “should never be used to flatter, but to reveal, which is to disturb.” In examining a past time she has much to say to our own.

The Department of Theatre and Film is proud to introduce award-winning director Amy Gonzalez to Portland audiences. Gonzalez is a recipient of the Dean Goodman Award for Outstanding Direction and the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival’s Integrity Award as well as an NEA/TCG Directing Fellow. Amy was a professor and director for Foothill College’s Theatre Conservatory program. She holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, and is a member of SDC, the stage directors union.

 

Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Directed by Amy Gonzalez * Scene and Lighting Design by Bruce Keller

Low Cost Preview: November 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Evening Performances: November 11–12 & 16–19 at 7:30 PM
Matinee: Sunday, November 13 at 2:00 PM

General Admission tickets: $12
Students and Seniors: $8
Preview: $6

Group Ticket Sales & Ticket Options are available. For more information please call (503) 725-4612, or visit www.theaterarts.pdx.edu