The Playmaker
The Playmaker is a 1987 novel based in Australia written by the Australian author Thomas Keneally.[1]
Synopsis
In 1789 in Sydney Cove, the remotest penal colony of the British Empire, a group of convicts and one of their captors unite to stage a play. Governor Arthur Phillip presides over the colony, where 1st Lt. Ralph Clark, sadistic Major Robert Ross (Royal Marines officer), and Midshipman Harry Brewer have a curious effect on the goings-on of the new Australian colony. As felons, perjurers, thieves, and whores rehearse, their playmaker, Ralph Clark, is derided by authority. He also becomes strangely seduced. For the play's power is mirrored in the rich, varied life of this primitive land, and, not least, in the convict and actress Mary Brenham.
The play that they plan to stage is The Recruiting Officer, a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers. Many arguments are made over naturalism vs. presentationalism in acting style, and in the merits of the theatre itself.
Dedication
"To Arabanoo and his brethren, still dispossessed."
Notes
The novel was adapted into a play in 1988 by British playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, called Our Country's Good.[2]
See also
- 1987 in Australian literature
References
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- The Place at Whitton (1964)
- The Fear (1965)
- Bring Larks and Heroes (1967)
- Three Cheers for the Paraclete (1968)
- The Survivor (1969)
- A Dutiful Daughter (1971)
- The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972)
- Blood Red, Sister Rose (1974)
- Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
- Gossip from the Forest (1975)
- Season in Purgatory (1976)
- A Victim of the Aurora (1977)
- Passenger (1979)
- Confederates (1979)
- The Cut-Rate Kingdom (1980)
- Schindler's Ark (1982)
- A Family Madness (1985)
- The Playmaker (1987)
- Act of Grace (1988)
- By the Line (1989)
- Towards Asmara (1989)
- Flying Hero Class (1991)
- Chief of Staff (1991)
- Woman of the Inner Sea (1993)
- Jacko: The Great Intruder (1993)
- A River Town (1995)
- Bettany's Book (2000)
- An Angel in Australia (2000)
- The Tyrant's Novel (2003)
- The Widow and Her Hero (2007)
- The People's Train (2009)
- The Daughters of Mars (2012)
- Shame and the Captives (2014)
- Napoleon's Last Island (2015)
- Crimes of the Father (2016)
- The Soldier's Curse (2016)
- The Unmourned (2017)
- The Power Game (2018)
- Two Old Men Dying (2018)
- The Ink Stain (2019)
- The Dickens Boy (2020)
- Corporal Hitler's Pistol (2021)
- Fanatic Heart (2022)
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