Our Country’s Good at MMU’s Capitol Theatre

Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play Our Country’s Good might not appear immediately relevant to the interests of current audiences. Set in an 18th Century Australian penal colony, it doesn’t exactly sound like something that would get your blood pumping. The play’s content, however, observes a group of convicts producing a piece of theatre and illuminates how the power of drama lies in its ability to make its participants, as well as its audience, think. Any play that shouts proudly and urgently about the regenerative power of drama in a time of extreme cuts and dismissive attitudes towards the arts is perhaps more crucial than ever. Directed by the Library Theatre’s Chris Honer and performed by up-and-coming actors at MMU’s School of Theatre, it has the potential to remind us all what is so special about theatre.

Wed 24 – Sat 27 Apr, Capitol Theatre, Cavendish Street, M15 6BG, Tel: 0161 247 1306, 7.30pm (6pm Thu), £2.50 – £8, www.capitoltheatre.mmu.ac.uk