Our Country’s Good
Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark (Nick Hagen) and Mary Brenham (Ellie Boisen) share a kiss
This year’s spring play is Our Country’s Good and the cast is anxious to see how it goes. The play depicts the life of convicts and Royal Marines sent to Australia as part of the first penal colony. The play shows the class system in the convict camp and discusses themes such as sexuality, punishment, the Georgian judicial system and the idea that it is possible for ‘theatre to be a humanising force’ in the 1780’s. This is a 1988 play written by British playwright, Timberlake Wertenbaker, adapted from The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally. “It is historical of how Australia became a country, a penal colony,” freshman, Jacob Wright said.
The cast has gotten closer over the few weeks that they have been practicing. When sophomore Anna Weisenburger spoke of the cast she mentioned that, “Most of the cast are friends and we have our up and downs, but we work really well together and I feel comfortable working with the cast members.” Preparing for the roles was really hard for the entire cast, but they managed to do it. ”Having two roles, I had to make sure that I made the two characters very different from each other so they didn’t overlap and it didn’t look like I was just playing two parts,” Wright said.
One of the most difficult things about being in a play is the line memorizing. “Reading it over and over again and seeing if I got them right was how I managed to do it,” freshman Kjerstin Anderson said. The cast has been working really hard to make this a great play. “It will be amazing with the great cast and the great crew,” Wright commented. The cast is having fun making this a great show for the town to come see.
The play premieres on Thursday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m. and runs through Saturday, April 25. The final showing will be on April 26 at 1:30 p.m. All shows will be held in the OHS auditorium. Tickets are available one hour before the show. Come support the OHS students for this year’s spring play! Note: Andrew Peterson is not pictured.
I am Kimberley Strobel, a sophomore on the Magnet staff. I am signed up for the Magnet because I love writing. I am very interested in becoming an author...