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Matt Beresford

Matt Beresford

Matt Beresford

Matt Beresford is a director, speaker, trainer and leadership coach. He spent fifteen years working in business, before re-training as a Theatre Director at RADA, followed by an MA at St. Mary’s, University of London. He has directed a series of plays on the London fringe, as well as a number of productions for the amateur stage, including a production of The Recruiting Officer for Teddington Theatre. Matt has been invited to direct a new production of Our Country’s Good at the same theatre in 2022.

He also continues to combine his business and theatre experience to coach teams and senior executives on communication skills and leadership and is passionate about exploring the parallels between theatre directing and creative leadership in business.

Recommended Play(s)

In episode 34 Matt recommended Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

In episode 35 Matt recommended Handbagged by Moira Buffini.

 

 

035 – Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

035 – Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

 

 

 

035 – Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

It is 1789 in the newly formed settlement at Botany Bay in Australia. The Royal Marines are struggling to feed themselves and the community of convicts that they have transported from England. Three men are about to be hanged for stealing food. An officer flippantly suggests that hanging is the convicts’ favourite form of entertainment – “it’s their theatre”. The enlightened Governor of the colony is struck by another idea: that they might put on a real play to distract and entertain the imprisoned population, much against the view of many of his officers who think that any such culture would be wasted on the population of convicts and whores.

This unlikely story of a theatre production being put on by convicts in the new-found colony in New South Wales is true, for a group of those who were transported in what was known as the First Fleet to Australia did in fact put on a performance of George Farquhar’s Restoration Comedy The Recruiting Officer in honour of King George III’s birthday in June 1789. Almost exactly 200 years later playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre to adapt the story of this extraordinary theatrical enterprise into a new play that could run alongside their revival of The Recruiting Officer. Wertenbaker’s play Our Country’s Good premiered at the Royal Court in 1988, going on to win the Olivier Play of the Year award that year.

The play is now a common set text for Theatre and English Literature studies at both secondary and university level. It’s a vivid portrait of the volatile mix of the two sections that make up the new colony – the officers and the convicts. In the contrasts between the two, and in the parallels drawn with The Recruiting Officer as the convicts rehearse the play-within-play, the play raises timeless questions about what makes for a country’s good, or otherwise: the principles of justice and punishment; the stultifying constraints of class prejudice; the value and availability of education or culture, particularly the redemptive potential of theatre itself.

There is of course an obvious logic in our choosing Our Country’s Good to follow fresh on the heels of our last episode devoted to The Recruiting Officer, and the logic extends naturally to our inviting back our expert guest from that episode, director Matt Bereford. In fact, following his recent production of The Recruiting Officer at the Teddington Theatre Club, Matt will return to direct Our Country’s Good at the same theatre in 2022.

 

Matt Beresford

Matt Beresford is a director, speaker, trainer and leadership coach. He spent fifteen years working in business, before re-training as a Theatre Director at RADA, followed by an MA at St. Mary’s, University of London. He has directed a series of plays on the London fringe, as well as a number of productions for the amateur stage, including a production of The Recruiting Officer for Teddington Theatre. Matt has been invited to direct a new production of Our Country’s Good at the same theatre in 2022.

He also continues to combine his business and theatre experience to coach teams and senior executives on communication skills and leadership and is passionate about exploring the parallels between theatre directing and creative leadership in business.

 

Recommended Play

Matt recommended Handbagged by Moira Buffini.

Photo © Marc Brenner
We have footnotes for this episode …

The Footnotes to our episode on Our Country’s Good include observations on the parallels with the play-within-the-play, The Recruiting Officer.

Patreon Page

BECOME A PATRON!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron.
Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as exclusive access to The Play Review.

For details click here

Thank you very much for listening and for your support.
Douglas

The Texts
If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them by following the links below. We will earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Through our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s you will also be supporting independent bookshops. Thank you.
You might also be interested in …
063 – Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel

063 – Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel

Brian Friel’s magical memory play Dancing at Lughnasa is set at the time of the harvest festival in rural Ireland in 1936. It’s account of the events of that summer in the house of the five unmarried Mundy sisters is filtered many years later through the memory of Michael, the son of the youngest sister. His memory is undoubtedly unreliable, but it is also funny, poetic and profoundly poignant.

Josie Rourke, who directs the gorgeous new production of the play currently playing at the National Theatre in London, joins us to explore Friel’s spellbinding masterpiece.

062 – Private Lives, by Noël Coward

062 – Private Lives, by Noël Coward

Noël Coward’s play Private Lives is both a dazzling dramatic comedy and an excoriating portrait of love and marriage among the disaffected elite of the Jazz Age. Coward himself starred in the premiere production in both London and New York in 1930, the critics acclaiming the show’s construction and wit, but predicting that it would not last. As a new production opens at the Donmar theatre in London, I ask Coward’s newest biographer, Oliver Soden, why the play has aged so well.

061 – Sea Creatures, by Cordelia Lynn

061 – Sea Creatures, by Cordelia Lynn

Cordelia Lynn’s play Sea Creatures is a poetic exploration of loss and grief, its setting betwixt the sea and shore rich in metaphoric resonances. As we record this episode, Sea Creatures is playing at the Hampstead Theatre in London in a spellbinding production directed by James Macdonald.

I am delighted to be joined by playwright Cordelia Lynn to talk about her fascinating new play.

034 – The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar

034 – The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar

 

 

 

034 – The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar

It is 1704 in the country town of Shrewsbury. The army has come to town, or at least a few dedicated officers fresh from victory at the Battle of Blenheim who are here to recruit as many of the local men as they can connive to sign up to serve. While they’re at it, they don’t mind enjoying the pleasures of the local hostelries and of the local ladies. In turn the local ladies are also seeking to recruit for themselves: a husband who will take them away to fortunes new or be corralled to stay and support them and the offspring they plan, or in some cases have already been provided with.

This is George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer,  a rollicking comic satire of love and war, sex and deception, complete with singing and poetry and a woman pretending to be a man to win the love of her man. The play was an immediate hit when it was first performed at Drury Lane in 1706, and went on to become one of the most frequently performed plays of the 18th century, as well as a staple of educational curricula and theatre programming ever since.

There is also a personal reason for my choosing this play for this episode, and inviting my guest, director Matt Beresford, to join me. On the day that we recorded our conversation, Matt was in the final days of rehearsal for a production of The Recruiting Officer which he is directing for our local theatre, and he has been gracious enough to allow me to assist him in this project. If you happen to listen to our conversation before the 25th or 26th of September (2021), and are inspired to do so, you can still catch our production at the Teddington Theatre Club’s theatre in Hampton Hill, southwest London: click here for information and tickets.

Matt Beresford

Matt Beresford is a director, speaker, trainer and leadership coach. He spent fifteen years working in business, before re-training as a Theatre Director at RADA, followed by an MA at St. Mary’s, University of London. He has directed a series of plays on the London fringe, including the first London revival of Rona Munro’s classic prison drama Iron at the Old Red Lion. He has also directed a number of productions for the amateur stage, including a wonderful production of Wind in the Willows for Teddington Theatre.

He also continues to combine his business and theatre experience to coach teams and senior executives on communication skills and leadership and is passionate about exploring the parallels between theatre directing and creative leadership in business.

Recommended Play

Matt recommended Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

Photo © Marc Brenner
We have footnotes for this episode …

The Footnotes to our episode on George Farquhar’s classic Restoration Drama The Recruiting Officer include observations on the multiple meanings of the play’s title, and the extraordinary story of its first production in Australia in 1789.

Patreon Page

BECOME A PATRON!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron.
Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as exclusive access to The Play Review.

For details click here

Thank you very much for listening and for your support.
Douglas

The Texts
If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them by following the links below. We will earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Through our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s you will also be supporting independent bookshops. Thank you.
You might also be interested in …
063 – Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel

063 – Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel

Brian Friel’s magical memory play Dancing at Lughnasa is set at the time of the harvest festival in rural Ireland in 1936. It’s account of the events of that summer in the house of the five unmarried Mundy sisters is filtered many years later through the memory of Michael, the son of the youngest sister. His memory is undoubtedly unreliable, but it is also funny, poetic and profoundly poignant.

Josie Rourke, who directs the gorgeous new production of the play currently playing at the National Theatre in London, joins us to explore Friel’s spellbinding masterpiece.

062 – Private Lives, by Noël Coward

062 – Private Lives, by Noël Coward

Noël Coward’s play Private Lives is both a dazzling dramatic comedy and an excoriating portrait of love and marriage among the disaffected elite of the Jazz Age. Coward himself starred in the premiere production in both London and New York in 1930, the critics acclaiming the show’s construction and wit, but predicting that it would not last. As a new production opens at the Donmar theatre in London, I ask Coward’s newest biographer, Oliver Soden, why the play has aged so well.

061 – Sea Creatures, by Cordelia Lynn

061 – Sea Creatures, by Cordelia Lynn

Cordelia Lynn’s play Sea Creatures is a poetic exploration of loss and grief, its setting betwixt the sea and shore rich in metaphoric resonances. As we record this episode, Sea Creatures is playing at the Hampstead Theatre in London in a spellbinding production directed by James Macdonald.

I am delighted to be joined by playwright Cordelia Lynn to talk about her fascinating new play.