Our Country's Good, National Theatre ****

I seem to be one of the few who have never heard of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play, I was surprised to learn after seeing the play in the Olivier that it was originally written for a smaller space and fro character doubling. Nadia Fall's production captures the vast space and desolation in this far-off place that these people have been shipped off to. McKintosh has designed something simple yet effective that makes use of the famous drum revolve to show the cramped conditions of a ship and to change the scenes. Jason Hughes leads a strong cast that shows the therapeutic qualities of theatre that could go hand in hand with Farinelli and the King. It uses these dire circumstances in this broken society to highlight the fact that, whilst theatre and the arts can't transform a person, it can change them to take time to forget their problems and focus on someone-else's life. The horror isn't diluted but the celebratory nature of the play doesn't come across as pretentious. Cerys Matthews' music is wonderfully atmospheric yet contributes towards a slightly longer running time than is expected, even if you don't notice the time pass. This is a funny, uplifting but also brutal play in a good production which captures the scale of the Australian outback.