AustLit

Order By Numbers was a collective of theatre workers that put on three shows during 1985 and 1986. Teatro Unidad y Liberacion was a bilingual Spanish/English performance group active in 1987. Both groups had a number of members in common, and both were also 'administered under an incorporated body called The New Actors Company.

Hugh Watson and Penny Glass provide insight into all three companies. The chapter also includes excerpts from a 1994 account of Order By Numbers and The New Actors Company written by Kerry O'Rourke.

Hugh Watson provides insight into the nature of writing for community theatre.

'The White man's Mission was a musical entertainment using the metaphor of rousing revivalist meeting to present episodes in the history of Australia and the South Pacific. Racism, slavery and exploitation were examined in a bitterly humorous documentary about the fate of Aborigines after the arrival of the white man on the continent, and the fate of the 50,00 descendants of the South Sea Islanders still living in Australia today' (Errol O'Neill. Challenging the Centre, p.63).

'A 55 minute show about the history and present threat of nuclear war and the evils of militarism. Set in the metaphor of an insane asylum, the actors played a series of terrifying characters which arose out of their "MADness"...The military-industrial complex was analysed and, towards the end of the show, all pretence at satire was quite purposely dropped for a dramatic monologue based on extracts from Wilfred Burchett's post-Hiroshima journalism and from the book on Hiroshima by J. Hersey.'

Source: Errol O'Neill, 'A Chronology of the Popular Theatre Troupe : 1974-1983,' p.81.