Our Countries Good, performed in the Bolton Octagon in September 2012, used multirole throughout to fully allow us to see the performers wide range of skill .

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Explain how one or more performers used their vocal and physical skills to multirole in one live production you have seen, and assess the effectiveness of their performances at particular moments.

‘Our Countries Good’, performed in the Bolton Octagon in September 2012, used

multirole throughout to fully allow us to see the performers wide range of skill .They

used their physical and vocal skills, as well as props and accessories of costume, to

differentiate between the characters fully, creating a whole array of different

characters seamlessly and at speed. Another reason for using multirole is for the

economical side, with only half the number of actors needing to be employed, which

is significant as the play was written when funding for the arts was being cut and this

play was used to show the effects that the theatre has on people. This also helps the

audience to fully distinguish between the two social groups of characters that are

present in the play, the convicts and the officers, with the contrasts clearly shown by

the actors.

A particularly effective performance was given by Ian Redford, who played convict

John Arscott, Meg Long, Midshipman Harry Brewer and Captain Jemmy Campbell.

When adopting each role Ian Redford adopted entirely difference characteristics and

 mannerisms, completely separating the characters. The first character we met was

Arscott in Act 1 Scene 1 on the ship. Ian Redford adopted a slumped positioning in

the wooden hatch along with the other convicts expressing the cramped conditions

of the ship. The wooden hatch was mid stage on a raised moveable platform. This

multi-purposeful hatch was a used frequently throughout the play as a whole. Here it

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is used for the hulk of the ship used to transport the convicts. In 1789 Britain

transported convicts to Australia, as the loss of the USA meant a loss of the place

where they used to send most of its criminal classes and so they decided to send

them to Australia for a sentence of seven years.

To show the bad conditions they had to endure on the long boat trip there they all

had wide eyes looking desperately staring into mid space, showing the hardship and

the lack of energy Arscott had left. The ignorance to the whipping of his ...

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