Chatsworth Players are branching out with their autumn production this year. With local professional director Maggie Ford at the helm, they will be performing Timberlake Wertenbaker’s award-winning comedy/drama Our Country’s Good.
A slight departure from the group’s usual classic texts, Our Country’s Good was written in the 1980s by Timberlake Wertenbaker, based on the novel the Playmaker by Thomas Keneally. Set in the late 1700s, in the yet-to-be-named Australia, this gritty comedy-drama follows the officers and convicts in the first penal colony as they come to grips with their new realities. When one of the officers makes a request to put on a play using the convicts as actors, it creates turmoil amongst the officers.
As is usual with their autumn performances, Chatsworth Players will be raising money for a charity that relates to the themes of the play. This year they are supporting Rideout, Creative Arts for Rehabilitation. The organisation was established in 1999 in order to develop innovative, arts-based approaches to working with prisoners and staff within U.K. prisons. All monies from programme sales and the bar will be donated to Rideout, and there will be collecting tins at the performances.
Maggie Ford, local veteran actor and director, is directing the show. Maggie, who trained at RADA, has had a long career as an actor before concentrating on directing.
In order to make the most of the text, the staging of the show will be much more immersive, performed in the traverse. Therefore, in a break with tradition, Chatsworth Players will not be performing ‘Our Country’s Good’ in the theatre at Chatsworth House but instead will take the show to the Medway Centre in Bakewell and Wirksworth Town Hall. As Our Country’s Good is also on the A-Level syllabus, they are also offering a student ticket price for the first time.
Our Country’s Good has an age advisory of 16+ and is running the following dates and times:
15/16/17 November (Friday/Saturday/ Sunday), 7.30pm at the Medway Centre, Bakewell
21/22/23 November (Thursday/Friday/ Saturday), 7.30 pm at Wirksworth Town Hall. General admission tickets are £15, students £12.50 (limited number and only available for the Medway Centre) all available from www. chatsworthplayers.com
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