I'm recording this at the moment (hopefully I'll be able to watch it all next week), and I have a little question.
I've only known of Ralph Clarke and Mary Bryant through Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good. Did Ralph Clarke really attempt to direct a play with the convicts, or was that a complete fabrication for Wertenbaker's play? If it is true, is it dealt with at all in this series?
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the convicts did put on a play, it was for the King's birthday. i dont think it's covered in this story - although ive only seen the 1st half so far. they did cheer the king's b'day when they arrived,m but they didnt rehearse a play.
do you think that the real character of mary was split in 2 for Timberlake Wertenbaker's play? because in the play there is mary who has a relationship with Ralph, but there is also a Dabby Bryant who wants to escape? this could just be me reading too much into things!
I was thinking about that too...we did Our Country's Good at college and I was confused when I saw the trailers for this series. I can't work out why he would have split the character in two though, it just doesn't make sense!!!
sharemaybe she split the character in two in order for dramatic effect. the play works much better, in terms of what it's about - rehabilitation etc - if there are two characters. it also gives it a happy ending with ralph and mary being together. lots of the real people who sailed in the first fleet are present in the play, along with quite a few extras who add to it ultimately being a play. But that's just my opinon, could be completely wrong!
shareWell seeing as OCG was based on the Playmaker, we ought to look at Thomas Keneally's reasons as opposed to Wertenbaker's. After studying OCG I was also slightly confused after watching this why the two stories differed so completely. Obviously MB & TP/OCG were written for different reasons, but it would have been good to have some historical continuity.
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