"Our Country's Good," the newest performance by the Department of Performing Arts, ran from Wednesday until Sunday and addressed a host of issues: Power struggles between races, classes, social rank and gender. The show also raised questions about whether to punish or reform prisoners as well as the nature of art and the nature of justice. One might say it tried to bring up too many questions, which made the play confusing at times and much longer than necessary.
Written by Timberlake Wertenbaker, "Our Country's Good" is about a British penal colony in Australia circa 1788. In an attempt to teach the convicts something, a few of the officers decide to have them put on a play for the rest of the colony. But Wertenbaker tried to tackle too many other issues to keep the play even and flowing.
Most superfluous was the Aborigine who lurked about the set and occasionally commented on events. Although well played by Amelia Meyers, a junior in DPA, the character should either have been expanded or completely eliminated.
The set, designed by James Kronzer, was beautiful in its starkness, which allowed for quick scene changes, dramatic lighting and an interesting spinning effect that worked especially well during a rowboat scene.
Unfortunately, the decision to project the title of each scene onto the back wall distracted from the setting and gave the audience a discontinuous feeling, like someone holding up a boxing scorecard at the beginning of each round.
The convicts delivered the strongest performances. Emotional and endearing, their rehearsal scenes were the best in the play.
Roddy Flynn, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences, stole several scenes as Robert Sideway, particularly the audition, with his sweeping gestures and his attention to the details that made his character so funny. However, he proved his dramatic skill in the scene with Lauren Wesolowski, a sophomore in CAS who played Liz Morden, where they rehearse after being humiliated by an officer and while listening to another convict being whipped. Wesolowski's body language and facial expressions were consistently good and made her character fun to watch.
Kent Peacock, a junior in CAS, hung on to his Irish accent as Ketch Freeman in a way that made the character both believable and pitiable for the situations he was placed into. Especially solid was the scene on the "Science of Hanging," where he measures one of his fellow actors for a noose.
Also well played were the tensions among the female convicts. Their bickering, especially between Morden and Duckling (Emily Formica, a sophomore in CAS) was totally on the mark, as was their eventual friendship.
However, as real as the convicts seemed, the officers were less impressive. This was caused by two factors, neither of them the actors themselves.
First, the uniforms provided by Debra Kim Sivigny were too large for some of the officers, which made them seem too young to be as imposing as needed.
Second, those with costumes that did fit were prevented from seeming realistic by the parodied characters they were forced to play.
Every time Major Robbie Ross (Frankie Martin, a junior in CAS and School of International Service) got stuck in a storm of silly alliteration, it broke the cruelty of his character.
Also, every time Captain Jemmy Campbell (Benjamin Naramore, a sophomore in SPA) stuttered, it broke the serious mood of the scene. This is not to say that he wasn't hysterical, because he was, with impeccable timing.
Captain Arthur Phillip (Pape Faye, a senior in CAS and SOC) turned in the best performance of the officers, and director Cara Gabriel's decision in favor of nontraditional casting added poignancy to some of his scenes when viewed in context.
The main problem the cast struggled with was chemistry between its couples. Harry Brewer (Ryan Nealy, a junior in CAS) and Duckling were slightly more believable than Ralph Clark (Joshua Stricklin, a freshman in SPA) and Mary Brenham (freshman Jessamyn Fuller, SPA and SOC), though both couples could take a lesson from the dictionary scene involving John Wisehammer (SPA freshman Barron J. Weyerhaeuser) and Brenham. Their scene was as natural as the scenes with the other couples were forced. All the onstage kisses were awkward.
When it comes down to it, the acting was strong but limited by the unwieldy script. Make sure not to miss the next DPA performance.
