The Recruiting Officer by Blackwood Players Inc

The Recruiting Officer by Blackwood Players Inc

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Posted 2016-09-29 by Haydn Radfordfollow

Fri 30 Sep 2016 - Sat 15 Oct 2016

A Titillating Comedy of Romance and Recruitment.

The Mt Lofty Ranges are alive with the sounds of two different theatre productions recreating the Penal Settlement in Sydney Cove in 1789. However, they are clearly not the same play.
Director, Damien White, is delighted to announce The Blackwood Players' upcoming production of The Recruiting Officer, is the first play performed by the convicts in Australia, under the authority of Governor Phillip. It is not clear how many professional actors were aboard the First Fleet, but it was noted during the first performance, that the convicts made the best actors.



Stirling Community Theatre is currently performing the true story of Our Country's Good, the behind-the-scenes play based on Thomas Keneally's novel, The Playmaker, which tells the story of the first play staged in Australia. The convicts were encouraged by Captain Phillip to stage a play as a means to civilize them. Click HERE for further details of performances of Our Country's Good.



Director, Damien White, has been wanting to put on George Farqhuar's The Recruiting Officer for years, ever since his first production of Oliver Goldsmith's, She Stoops to Conquer, for Burnside Players in 2010. The Recruiting Officer was written at the very end of the Restoration period (1706). It was the first play to deal with matters outside of the rare air of London, being set in Wales (Shrewsbury) and involving not only the country gentlemen, but the other country folk as well. The earthy humour and the comic characters George Farqhuar introduced have carried on (pun intended) to this day.



White found The Recruiting Officer to his liking, and then read of its performance history. After reading Thomas Kennealy's The Playmaker, he was intrigued by the idea of recreating the convict setting, not by doing a behind-the-scenes play such as Our Country's Good, but rather a complete run of the play as it would have been performed by the convicts in Sydney Cove.

White said, "I couldn't be prouder of our production. We have had a lengthy three months rehearsal period and the show has come together. The production is spicy, earthy and downright rude in parts, but it is bound to arouse and entertain without offending even the most prudish of theatre goers."



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!date 30/09/2016 -- 15/10/2016
%wnadelaide
131472 - 2023-06-13 07:49:42

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