Publicity for a play set in the 1700s about colonial Australia's history of convicted criminals and officer organization struck a nerve at the Australian Embassy, causing the Department of Performing Arts to take down the original posters and put up different ones.
The first poster design for the play, "Our Country's Good," by Timberlake Wertenbaker, was selected by Cara Gabriel, the play's director and a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and designed by a student from the Corcoran College of Art and Design.
Kay Mussell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, initially approved the poster but ordered it to be removed and replaced after the Australian Embassy contacted her with concerns, according to Anne Veal, a sophomore in CAS, who is in charge of public relations for the play.
The embassy viewed the poster as a "misinterpretation of Australia," Veal said.
According to Veal, the embassy was not aware of the content of Wertenbaker's play when the DPA was presented with concerns from Australian representatives.
The original poster showed the shape of Australia in red, wrapped in black barbed wire and suspended over a field of white. The British flag was superimposed over the continent.
The poster described the production as "a frippery frittering play," and included the words "cruel," "forgotten," "vice," "disgusting" and "redemption" strewn across the background.
The revised poster shows the shape of Australia dripping in red and held by a shackle, suspended over a field of blue. In the background is the "frippery frittering play" description, as well as the words "marines who come looking for buttock," "cruel," whispers," "forgotten" and "vice."
After Mussell decided to pull the original poster, she explained her decision to those involved in the production.
"We fully understand the position of the University," Veal said. "We are American University, and we pride ourselves on our relationship with foreign countries, including the embassies."
Some involved with the production were uncomfortable with the decision, Veal said. Their objections arose from "the concern that we as artists feel that this is a form of censorship."
Veal did not speak with the embassy, but in response to its objections she said she would have contended that the play is set in historical times and does not attempt to comment artistically on the current Australian state.
The embassy and Mussell were unavailable for comment.
"While the ending of the play does, indeed, include the possibility of redemption and hope for the future, the play itself deals with many dark, ugly realities of life as a prisoner and life as a pioneer in a dangerous and foreign land ... The issue of the colonists' treatment of the aborigines is never resolved, nor is the fate of the prisoners," said Gabriel, describing the play in a publication from the DPA.
"Our Country's Good" ran last week at the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre. The play explores dark themes in colonial Australia, which at one point housed British convicts. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of convicts exiled to Australia from Great Britain were persecuted for minor theft crimes.
While none of the convicts were exiled for serious crimes like rape or murder, the penalties were very severe, cementing the bleak events in Australia in world history.
The connection between British colonialism, the history of displaced Aborigines and the influx of a convict population at the turn of the 18th century could have contributed to the Australian embassy's concern over the negative connotation of the original poster.
