English playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker's play, `Our Country's Good,' at Daylesford Theatre beginning on April 30.

The play, which is based on the Thomas Keneally's novel `The Playmaker,' was originally produced to great acclaim at London, England's Royal Court Theatre.

Keneally also wrote "Schindler's List.'' The setting for `Our Country's Good' is Sydney, Australia in 1788, and concerns the first batch of British convicts exiled there. In their first year in this strange and often brutal land the convicts produced George Farquhar's play "The Recruiting Officer'' as a morale builder.

The characters in Wertenbaker's play are based on those actual historical figures and events, but it is not just an historical drama. The play is also a very contemporary examination of class, race, and how a society functions. It is a testament to the power of the human spirit in raising above extremely harsh conditions to create something beautiful. The BMDS production will have a cast of thirteen, and is directed by professional director/playwright Tom Coash.

"I think the play will be of great interest to people in Bermuda, not only because of the many similarities in the respective histories: a British colony, the many sea images, a society which was started from scratch, the convict labour that was used in Bermuda, et cetera, but also because the play touches upon many issues which are of great concern to present day Bermudians, such as national identity, race and class, equal rights, respect, and particularly education,'' Mr. Coash says. Theatregoers are warned that the play contains strong adult language which, after some soul searching, it was decided not to censor.

"Ms Wertenbaker has used the coarse language and images to demonstrate the transcendence of the convicts from the most base, hopeless, dehumanising existence in the convict hulks of England to the beautifully crafted lines of George Farquhar's play and a new beginning in a new world,'' the dirctor explains.

`Our Country's Good' will run through through Saturday, May 5 with a curtain time of 8:00 p.m. Tickets ($15) are available from the Daylesford Theatre box office until Friday, April 27 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and thereafter from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. on performance nights.

For further information telephone Tina Adderley at 294-3408 or e-mail:tadderley yCCS.bm