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When was OCG first performed and why is that significant?
10 September 1988
The bi-centenary anniversary of the first ship arriving in Australia (1788)
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What is a colony?
Settlement in a new locality, forming a new state based on the parent state
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What is an empire?
Totality of all coonies
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For what economic reasons might a country want to set up colonies?
- trade opportunities
- wealth
- resources
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For what political reasons might a country want to set up colonies?
- managing criminals
- have more locations = more powerful
- to suppress other countries
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When people first arrived in Australia, they declared it 'terra nullius', what does this mean?
'Nobody's Land'
But it actually was inhabited, and the aboriginals were stupid/of a lower intelligence
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Why did England chose Australia as the place to send convicts?
Furthest away place from England, isolation was part of the punishment
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How many people were on the first ship to Australia?
Between 1,000 and 1,400
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How long did transportation of criminals happen for? How many people were transported in that time?
100 years roughly, with 160,000 people exported
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What did Frantz Fanon say about the Manichean world of colonialism?
'The colonial world is a Manichean world. […] The native is declared insensible to ethics; [...] and in this sense he is the absolute evil.'
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Who commisioned Wertenbaker to write OCG?
MAX STAFFORD CLARK
he wanted a play to make a point about the redemptive element of theatre
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How did Wertenbaker write the play? How did Max Stafford Clark describe her way of working?
- The actors met before the script was written and did a month of workshops
- then she wrote a first draft in 10 weeks
- Returned to actors and edited it
- MSC: 'hazardous' way of working
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What was the colonial order of people?
- White British officer
- White British criminal
- Other criminals
- Aboriginals (black)
There was considered a natural divide between white and black
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When did colonial power system begin to be overturned?
in the 20th Century. In 1960, 17 African countries gained autonomy
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What does post-colonialist literature focus on?
- Working through the process of decolonisation.
- A genre that emerged in the 1970s
- Particularly interested in perspectives, unthinking Eurocentrism
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How does The Tempest relate to OCG?
- Caliban and Sycorax are aboriginal characters
- Prospero and sailors are colonisers with knowledge and culture
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Why were dreams so important to Aboriginals?
The 'Dreamtime' is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it's creation, and it's great stories. The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. For survival these laws must be observed.
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What are the two contrasting descriptions given of Australia by the officers?
- 'a paradise of birds'
- 'a human hell'
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When was the latest large production of OCG?
National Theatre 2015 (you saw it)
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Which two pieces of literature were influential to Wertenbaker when she was writing OCG?
- The Recruiting Officer, George Farquhar - 1706
- The Playmaker, Thomas Keneally - 1987
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What play do the convicts put on in OCG?
The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar (1706)
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What is the novel The Playmaker about?
- The first performance of the recruiting officer in australia
- A basis for Wertenbaker, a very similar story
- Published a year before OCG was first performed
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Is The Recruiting Officer a similar play to OCG?
- No very different tone.
- The relationships in RO are friendly and the opposite can be said about OCG
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What does adapting a piece of work mean?
Transposing a recognisable work into a creative act. The adapted work engages with the original.
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What does the epilogue do?
finishes the play, but signifies that the end has already occurred
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