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“There’s a pleasure sure, in being mad, which none but mad-men know”.
George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer.
On June 4, 1789, in the middle of a Sydney winter and less than 18 months since ‘First Settlement’, the first piece of ‘Western’ theatre was produced in the new colony – The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar. This first theatrical production in the new colony was mounted in honour of King George III’s birthday, performed by a group of unknown convicts, to an elite audience of about 60 people, including Governor Arthur Phillip, the Marine Corps officers and their wives, as well as the few ‘free settlers’, and was performed in a ramshackle convict hut.
Other than this, not much is known about this first theatrical production, nonetheless, there are a number of factors that remain as considerable influences on the character of the contemporary Australian actor. These include – the ‘Play’, the ‘Event’, the ‘Performing Space’, and the Actors. This series of articles will look at each of these factors and how they relate to modern Australian theatre, film, and television practice in forming the character of the Australian actor. This post concerns ‘The Play’ itself.
George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer was a popular ‘Restoration’ comedy that had been first produced in London in 1706 and had remained in regular performance throughout the 18th Century. It concerns the social and sexual exploits of two officers, Captain Blume and Captain Brazen, in the rural country town of Shrewsbury, and the recruitment of soldiers from the local farming community with the ‘trickster’ Sergeant Kite to assist them.
One of the central tenets of ‘Western’ theatre is found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1601), that ‘the purpose of playing’ is ‘to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature’; that the theatre is a reflection of life and the human condition in all its myriad forms. More often than not this is a reflection of immediate contemporary life – as was the case with this convict production of The Recruiting Officer.
What does the title – The Recruiting Officer – suggest? This is a play involving the military, and subsequently, it had an immediate contemporary relevance for its elite audience of Marine officers and their wives and the ‘free settlers’. Recruiting was something they would have all been very familiar with, particularly being often enforced by the notorious ‘press gangs’. Furthermore, as Humphrey Hall and Alfred J Cripps state in The Romance of the Sydney Stage (1996) it is more than likely that the convict actors were dressed in borrowed clothing from the officers and their wives. Somewhat ironically, the convict actors were dressed as their jailers.
In modern theatre parlance, this would have been a ‘modern dress’ production of a relatively old and ‘classic’ play. This issue, plus the immediate relevance and topicality of the play has remained a relatively common feature in Australian theatre, film, and television – we like our dramatic works to be ‘modern’. Whilst we certainly do ‘historical drama’, nonetheless, for the most part, Australian audiences like their plays/films to be of immediate contemporary relevance.
Fast forward and this is particularly evident in the numerous ‘modern’ dramas and especially in satiric Australian ‘comedy of manners’, exemplified by the plays by David Williamson (amongst others), of which Williamson’s Don’s Party (1971) remains the most popular. Other examples include Chris Lilley’s Summer Heights High (2007) and Nakkiah Lui’s Black is the New White (2017). Subsequently, Australian actors are not only distinctively ‘modern’, reflecting their times, but are also experienced and skilled in ironic and satiric comedy. The mischievous ‘trickster’ character of Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer is arguably the first in a long line of ‘larrikin’ characters.
The next installment in this series on The Genesis of the Australian Actor will look at The Event, and how similar events and festivals are those which are the most heightened times of theatrical activity in Australia.
The Genesis Of The Australian Actor: Part 2
The Genesis Of The Australian Actor: Part 3
Tony Knight was educated at Sydney Grammar School and trained at the Drama Centre London, which includes in its alumni Colin Firth, Frances de la Tour, Paul Bettany, Penelope Wilton, Michael Fassbinder and Tom Hardy. Tony has considerable knowledge, experience and expertise as a professional acting teacher and director. Tony has been the Program Leader for the Musical Theatre (B.A. Hons.) course at the LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore, developing and implementing a new curriculum. He was the Head of Acting at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), training some of Australia’s most celebrated national and international actors, such as Cate Blanchett, Sam Worthington, Alex O’Loughlin and Miranda Otto. Tony has taught, directed and lectured in many parts of the world, including Australia, the USA, Japan, Romania, Singapore and Tonga. He has spoken at numerous international and national conferences, including the annual ITI-Drama Schools Conference in Romania, and at the Musical Theatre Educators Conference, in Perth 2015, which included delivering a paper re current research - What’s Hidden Underneath: Secrets & Sex –The Pajama Game and American Drama n the early 1950s, the Age of McCarthyism, HUAC, and The Kinsey Report. Tony has a passionate interest in all the performing arts, and dedicated to improving the training of young actors. He is now freelancing and completing his PhD on Richard Burbage: Shakespeare’s Actor & the Art of ‘Personation’. Now resident in Adelaide, South Australia, Most recently he has successfully delivered three public lectures on the 'Identity of the Australian Actor' at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. Tony He has been teaching at SA Casting and Angela Heesom Casting, as well as his own private classes. He has also been directing and producing, including three successful professional productions - Harold Pinter’s Old Times, and William Mastrosimone’s Extremities at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and Gardner McKay’s Toyer at the Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide.
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