International Law

The Convict's Opera tour

By John Hirst

Max Stafford-Clark directs this piece which tells the story of prisoners staging John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in 1812 Britain.

Like a recidivist criminal, that fine director Max Stafford-Clark is returning to the scene of the crime. Twenty years ago he scored one of his biggest hits with a double-bill of The Recruiting Officer and Timberlake Wertenbaker?s Our Country?s Good, which told the story of a group of British convicts staging Farquhar?s great Restoration comedy in the early days of the penal colony in Australia.

In this new piece, written and adapted by Stephen Jeffreys, Stafford-Clark directs the story of a group of British prisoners staging John Gay?s The Beggar?s Opera (1728) during the long transportation voyage from the London docks to Australia.

Nothing like a bit of culture to start a Sunday morning.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on January 25, 2009 (boomark / email).