Our Country’s Good - New Wolsey Theatre

Our Country’s Good

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A Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company Production in co-production with Ramps on the Moon

By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Based on The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally

Our Country’s Good is both a comedy and a powerful drama which shows us how we can escape the chains that bind us.

In 1787, ships each with over 700 convicts on board set sail on an eight month voyage. When they arrive in Australia, their survival is by no means certain: supplies are running out, the convicts are stealing food or trying to escape and the guards are threatening mutiny.

Our Country’s Good tells the extraordinary true story of a group of convicts and a young officer who rehearse and perform a play – Australia’s first theatrical production. With opposition from the officers and a leading lady who may be hanged, the odds are stacked against them.

Our Country’s Good is a touring production made in co‑production with Ramps on the Moon, whose previous collaborations over the last two years include the comedy hit The Government Inspector and a critically acclaimed version of The Who’s Tommy. The production features the creative use of audio description, signing, and captions. For more information visit rampsonthemoon.co.uk

Age recommendation 14+ (this production contains strong language and nudity)


Cast & Creatives

Colin Connor — Robbie Ross

Colin trained at Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre.

Theatre credits include: Waiting for Godot (Tobacco Factory Theatres/The Dukes/Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough); The Father (Oldham Coliseum Theatre/Harrogate Theatre); The Winter’s Tale; To Kill a Mockingbird;  A View from the Bridge; Can’t Pay Won’t Pay; Tull; Of Mice and Men; Macbeth; Habeus Corpus; The Demolition Man; Romeo and Juliet; Love on the Dole; A Streetcar Named Desire; Comedians (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); Twopence To Cross The Mersey (Liverpool Empire); The Cruel Sea (Liverpool Everyman); Whistle In The Dark (Royal Exchange/Tricycle Theatre); Steptoe and Son (Octagon Studio); The Towers Of Babel (24:7).

Television credits include: The Job Lot; Scott and Bailey; Emmerdale; Coronation Street; The Royal (ITV); Doctors; Moving On; Peaky Blinders; Prisoners’ Wives (BBC); Hollyoaks (Channel 4); See No Evil (Granada).

Film credits include: Dementamania (Ronin Productions); A Girl at Death’s Door (Short Film).

Colin won two Manchester Theatre Awards in 2016: Best Actor (Eddie Carbone – A View from the Bridge) and Best Fringe Performance for the title role in Mr Smith.

Tom Dawze — John Wisehammer

Tom trained at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.

Theatre credits include: Roots; The Marked (Theatre Témoin); Adventure To Oz; The Twelve Days Of Christmas (ChickenShed); The Remarkable Tale Of Oliver Twist (Red Earth Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Vertical Line Theatre); Soft Beats the Heart; Take Angel Home (Theatre503); Ages (Old Vic New Voices); Hamlet (Primary Shakespeare Company); Romeo and Juliet (Young Shakespeare Company); More Important Things; Free (Half Moon Theatre); The Frog Prince (Skewbald Theatre); All Together Now (The North Wall Arts Centre); Burning Gardens (Goat and Monkey); Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe).

Television credits include: EastEnders (BBC); Capital One (Channel 4); Macmillan (Channel 5).

Jarrad Ellis-Thomas — Captain Campbell

Jarrad trained at Guildford School of Acting

Theatre credits include: Our Country’s Good; Buckets; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Journey’s End; Pericles; All My Sons; Ghosts (Guildford School of Acting).

Television credits include: Father Brown (BBC).

Film credits include: Petroleum Spirit (Mirror Productions); Made in Wales: First Sign of Love (BBC).

Fifi Garfield — Dabby Bryant

Theatre credits include: Contractions; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Deafinitely Theatre); Macbeth (Royal Shakespeare Company); Emma (London Bubble Theatre Company/UK Tour).

Television credits include: Deaf Funny (Juggle Productions); Don’t Leave Me This Way; Switch (BBC).

Radio credits include: All Fingers and Thumbs (BBC Radio 4).

Fifi made her acting debut with London Deaf Drama Group aged 19 and has been performing ever since. She has appeared in over twenty productions on stage and screen and has worked with, among others, Bill Nighy, Jenny Éclair and Joe Absolom. Fifi has appeared in commercials for BT and as a studio dancer for Smirnoff. She has also been a presenter for See Hear on the BBC and Women of the World.

In addition to her acting career, Fifi works freelance within creative media, translating from English to BSL, directing, filming and editing.

Keiren Hamilton-Amos — Caesar

Keiren trained at the Birmingham School of Acting.

Theatre credits include: Freeman; Green Leaves Fall (Belgrade Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Solids and Liquids (Crescent Theatre); Joseph K (Old Joint Stock Theatre); Hugless Douglas (National Tour).

Television credits include: Break Up of the Bands (ITV Studio America).

Film credits include: Consequences (Strictly Arts Theatre).

Keiren has recently started his playwriting career with a sold-out performance of Zulu Blue at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Gbemisola Ikumelo — Liz Morden

Theatre credits include: Oliver Twist (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The New Nigerians (Arcola Theatre); The Night Watch (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Little Shop of Horrors (Salisbury Playhouse); Hopelessly Devoted (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/Paines Plough/Tricycle Theatre); The Coloured Museum (Talawa Theatre); Death and the Kings Horseman (National Theatre); Duck (Unicorn); The Next Big Thing (Tell Tara); God is a DJ (Theatre Centre); Rent (English Theatre, Frankfurt); The Bat (New Vic, Newcastle); The Lion King (Lyceum Theatre); Missing (Theatre Centre/National Tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Byre Theatre/National Tour); Godspell (Gateway Theatre).

Television credits include: Famalam; SunnyD; One Night; Holby City; Black Britain (BBC); Broadchurch (ITV); What’s Your News (Nickelodeon).

Film credits include: Good Night (Blind Eye Films); Cocktail (Illuminati Films).

Radio Credits Include: The Ferryhill Philosophers (Catherine Bailey Ltd); Clare in the Community (BBC); Lysisstrata (Angel Eye Media); The Interview (BBC Radio 3); Binti’s Party; Jero (BBC World Service); No.1 Ladies Detective Agency; Sensationomics; Troiluss and Cressida; Ambridge Extra (BBC Radio 4); Doctor Who Audio Plays (Big Finish Productions).

Kieron Jecchinis — Arthur Philip

Theatre credits include: The Merry Wives of Windsor; Coriolanus (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Midsummer Night's Dream; All's Well That Ends Well (Stratford Festival, Canada); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; To Kill a Mockingbird (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Awake and Sing (Almeida Theatre); The Odd Couple (Liverpool Playhouse); The Iron Man; The Evidence (New Perspectives); Get Carter (Red Shift Theatre Company); Dial M for Murder; Who's Life is it Anyway; Strangers on a Train; (Frinton Summer Theatre); Bingo (Young Vic/ Chichester Festival Theatre); The Front Page (Chichester Festival Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Nottingham Playhouse); And Nothing but the Truth (V-TOL); 900 Oneonta (The Old Vic); Woyzek; (Omnibus Theatre, Clapham).

 

Television credits include: EastEnders; Doctors; Out of the Blue; Gracie! (BBC); Poirot; The Bill (ITV); Hollyoaks (Channel 4); In Suspicious Circumstances (Granada Television); Brass Eye (TalkBack Productions); Space Precinct (Grove Television Enterprises).

 

Film credits include: Full Metal Jacket;Empire of the Sun (Warner Bros); Bonhoeffer (First Run Features); Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Paramount Pictures); Coriolanus (Hermetof Pictures); BEAT (Background Productions); Papillon (Czech Anglo Productions).

 

Radio credits include: The Putney Debates; The Corrupted; Luther (BBC Radio 4).

Sapphire Joy — Mary Brenham

Sapphire trained at Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre credits include: Imogen (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Asphalt Kiss (StoneCrabs/New Diorama); More Important Things (Half Moon Theatre); The Day the Waters Came (Theatre Centre); Krunch (Talawa/UK and South African Tour); Malachi (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Gifted (Okai Collier Company/White Bear); Just Me, Bell (Graeae).

Television credits include: Casualty; Crimewatch (BBC); Seconds From Disaster: Jonestown Cult Suicide (National Geographic).

Will Lewis — John Arscott

Will trained at the Actors Centre and Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre credits include: An Ideal Husband (KDC Theatre); Silent Royal; Dont Look Back in Anger (Deafinitely Theatre); Red and Yellow (Handprint Theatre); Sick (Graeae); Brain (Filmpro).

Film credits include: Daddy Dearest (Artemis Christodoulou); Patient 35 (Eduard Vijulie), Happy Birthday (Jules Rampton); Dead Man’s Shoes (Jamie Hillier).

Will has co-narrated The Iron Man for the BBC and has appeared in music videos for 1,2,1,2 (Island records) and Break Your Phone (Bullion Productions). He has also featured in commercials for Smirnoff’s We’re Open campaign (Bold Company) and The Big Issue’s Change Please campaign (Nice Shirts Films). Will has worked for Handprint Theatre several times, performing in a short children's educational show and facilitating workshops which Handprint create and provide themselves. He was also part of Handprint’s team when they did stage scene workshops for Mousetrap Productions.

Our Country’s Good is Will’s first touring theatre production.

Milton Lopes — An Aboriginal Australian

Theatre credits include: The Threepenny Opera (Graeae/New Wolsey Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse/Birmingham Repertory Theatre/West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Tempest (Taking Flight); Titus Andronicus (The Theory of Everything); Exhibit B (Third World Bunfight/Barbican Centre); Early Days of a Better Nation (Coney); No One Is An Island (Tangle); Calling Tree (Artsadmin;) Paralympic Opening Ceremony (LOCOG); The Garden (Graeae).

Television credits include: Celebrity Bedlam (Objective Productions); A Unica Mulher (Plural Entertainment); Regresso a Sizalinda (Antonia Seabra Producoes).

Film credits include: Bonobo (Fable Films); Twist of Fate (Clap Filmes); Le Dauphin (Madragoa); Is Just Sex (Crimson Black).

Radio Credits include: Brave New World; The  Lost World ( BBC Radio 4).

Milton is currently developing Elephant, a show involving circus, theatre and live music with deaf and disabled multidisciplinary performers which incorporates sign language and audio description that, subject to funding, will tour in  2019.

Alex Nowak — Robert Sideway

Theatre credits include: Tribes (Gate Theatre, Dublin/National Tour of Scotland); Real Human Being (National Tour of Wales); That Catholic Thing (Camden People's Theatre, London); Doing Words With Things (London Word Festival); Wizard of Deaf Oz (Rudolf Steiner House, London).

Film credits include: Mirrors (Shivers Above Madness Ltd); Loves Defiling Moment (Surreality Films Muted); Nonsense (Independent film); Foreign (Spiralhouse Pictures); Falling For Vilma; The Silent Killer (Beg Borrow Steal Productions); Knight Knight (Hermit Film Production); Summer Camp - Losing My Mind (music video); Late Night (Independent Film); The Beach House (University of the Creative Arts Farnham); The End (Film4/nominated for Best Actor at Deaffest Gala Awards 2013 for his role as Luke); English (T-squared Films).

Alex has completed a variety of commercial pieces for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and National Deaf Children's Society in the UK. He was the Young Deaffest Ambassador for Deaffest Film Festival between 2012 and 2014. He has appeared on Channel 4 as a continuity announcer. In 2014, Alex founded the Matara Deaf Film and Arts Festival in southern Sri Lanka.

Caroline Parker — Meg Long

Caroline Parker

Tim Pritchett — Second Lieutenant Ralph Clarke

Tim trained at RADA.

Theatre credits include: Short and Stark (Southwark Playhouse); Cat in Sieve (Theatre503); Hospital at the time of the Revolution; A New Play for the General Election (Finborough Theatre); Being The Actor (Royal Festival Hall); Manchester (Soho Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing; The Canterbury Tales (Royal Court); The Exeter Blitz Project (The Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter); Cuddle; In the Blood; Great Expectations (Arcola Theatre); The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery (Hoxton Hall); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Earl’s Court); Dead Dog at Dry Cleaners (Pleasance Theatre); Our Town Story (Exeter Northcott Theatre/Millennium Dome).

Television credits include: Black Mirror (Netflix); Howards End; Doctors (BBC) The Vessel (Fyrian Films).

Film credits include: Wonder Woman (Warner Bros); Time is Forever (NFTS); Jenny and Vinny Uncut (JEU Productions); The Sanctuary of Collell (Driver Productions); Gospel of Thomas (Polygram); Goddard and Others (New Troy Productions).

Fergus Rattigan — James ‘Ketch’ Freeman

Fergus trained at Trinity College Dublin in Drama and Theatre, Exeter University in Shakespearian Theatre. He is an Irish actor, living in London.

Theatre credits include: Merry Wives of Windsor; All’s Well that Ends Well; The Winter’s Tale; Twelfth Night (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival). He has performed in several productions of the pantomime Snow White as one of the Seven Dwarfs including in Richmond Theatre (2014), Stockport Plaza (2015), Shaw Theatre (2016) and Middlesbrough Theatre (2017).

Television credits include: Game of Thrones (HBO); The Tudors (Showtime); Callins’ Kicks (RTE); Camelot (Starz); Fair City (RTE).

Film credits include: Mary Poppins Returns (Disney); Holmes and Watson (Columbia Pictures); The Jungle Book (Warner Brothers); Assassin’s Creed (New Regency Pictures); Killing Lionel (Sunsetrider Productions.); Deadly Presents (Bloody Cuts); Your Highness (Stuber Productions).

Garry Robson — Harry Brewer

Theatre: White Christmas (Leicester Curve); Pericles (The National Theatres); Our Country’s Good (Nottingham Playhouse & touring); Blanche & Butch (Birds of Paradise); Mother Courage (Tron); The Who’s Tommy (New Wolsey & touring); Edmund the Learned Pig (Royal Exchange); Reasons to be Cheerful (Stratford East & touring); The Threepenny Opera (Edinburgh Festival Theatre, The New Wolsey Ipswich & touring); Pinocchio (Stratford East); Raspberry (Tron, Oval House); The Last Freakshow (Graeae, Fittings); Sea Changes and Stepping Stones (Interplay); Grimm (The Royal Court).

Television: Pitching In (BBC Wales); Silent Witness; The Bill, Casualty; Footsteps in the Snow.

Garry is also Artistic Director of Fittings Multimedia Arts.

Emily Rose Salter — Duckling Smith

Emily trained at the University of Reading for three years in Theatre Arts, Education & Deaf Studies and graduated in 2015. Previous training includes BTEC Dance 90 Credit Extended Diploma (3) at Colchester Institute.

Theatre credits include: War Crimes for the Home (Pulse Festival); Fingersmiths (New Wolsey Theatre); Depot (Mercury Theatre).

Television credits include: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Remark).

Film credits include: Acceptable Damage (Rebel without crew Films).

Emily is excited to be on tour with Our Country’s Good. She has been a passionate performer from the age of 6 and attended drama and dance clubs/schools such as Stagecoach, Sadler’s Wells, Mercury Youth Theatre and Green Candle Dance Studios. Since graduating things have progressed, and after her role as Assistant Stage Manager on a recent Ramps on the Moon Production, The Who’s Tommy, she is now delighted to be making her professional debut as a performer.

Dave Fishley — Judge David Collins

Dave trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Theatre credits include: Queen Anne (Royal Shakespeare Company/Theatre Royal Haymarket); Macbeth (Theatre Severn); Treasure Island; Of Mice and Men (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Hamlet; As You Like It; All’s Well That Ends Well (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Taming of the Shrew (Southwark Playhouse); Rough Crossings (Tour); The Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith); Macbeth (Out of Joint/World Tour); The Odyssey (Bristol Old Vic/Tour); Paradise Lost (Bristol Old Vic); The Special Relationship (York Theatre Royal/Tour); Dido, Queen of Carthage (Shakespeare’s Globe); Crime and Punishment in Dalston (Arcola Theatre); Caledonian Road (Almeida Theatre); The Nativity (Young Vic); Twelfth Night (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton).

Television credits include: Moses Jones; Casualty; Judge John Deed; Between the Lines (BBC); See How They Run (KEO Films); Buried (World); The Bill; A Touch of Frost (ITV); Macbeth (BBC Shools).

 

Film credits include: Bridget Jones’ Diary (Miramax); If Only (Intermedia Films); The Fifth Element (Gaumont); The Gathering (Granada Film Productions).

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