3/26/02

AUBURN UNIVERSITY THEATRE TO PRESENT 'OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD'

AUBURN -- Auburn University Theatre will close its 2001-2002 season with Timberlake Wertenbaker's award winning play, "Our Country's Good," which opens April 16 for a six-day run.

Winner of the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award and the Evening Standard Play of the Year Award in 1988, the play is a tale of the power that theatre has to transform and humanize -- even those whom society considers unredeemable.

The play concerns the first group of British convicts and royal marines to arrive at Botony Bay in Australia in 1788, and a noteworthy amateur theatrical performance they created that is a matter of historical record.

Based on the novel The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally, Wertenbaker has created a world that places on trial all of our assumptions about what civilization means. In the most dire of circumstances, the act of bringing a play to life on stage serves as a vehicle to escape the brutality, cruelty, and deprivation that convicts and officers alike endure as part of their daily existence.

The play will be directed by AU theatre Professor Dan LaRocque, who describes it as "a remarkable play -- full of humor and courage in spite of the cruelty and ignorance that are so much a part of this fledgling society of exiles.

"And it's a real thrill to be working on a play that so strongly emphasizes theatre's power to heal and rekindle the human spirit."

The play will also feature a "Front-to-Back" pre-show discussion of the play on April 17 at 6:15 p.m.

LaRocque, Australian native Chris Rodger, a professor of mathematics at AU, and his wife Sue, will discuss how the play's themes relate to Australian history and culture.

All performances of "Our Country's Good" will begin at 7:30 p.m. with the exception of a matinee performance beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 21.

For ticket reservations or more information, call the AU Theatre Ticket Office at 334/844-4154.

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mar02: AU-countrygood

CONTACT: Linda Bell, 334/844-6617.