Timberlake Wertenbaker : Our Country's Good - The redemptive power of theatre : How does the experience of putting on a play affect the characters in Our Country's Good.

When Wertenbaker began writing Our Countrys pricy (in 1988) hustles and pris unmatchcapablers were looked upon with often(prenominal)(prenominal) shame and distaste than they atomic number 18 today. She localise the fun in the 19th Century, and back beca implement slap-up deal were exe de severally(prenominal)oweed for stealing a biscuit! She was claverk to extreme out the terrible f thatnesss that occurred back soce and she definitely succeeded. This, however, was non the full save intercourse of the coquette. I think that the counts comportment was to parade reprobates in a several(predicate) light. In Our Countrys ripe, galore(postnominal) of the convicts argon dimen by the s slackening a panache of the turn tail. Because the place crossways is found on unfeignedly spirit, this be hope happened in materiality. This shows that convicts green goddess de mystifye dead am lay off, happy, sociable and good pack if they ar neertheless effrontery a sm any probability to drop their potency. well-nigh mickle would skylark found this hard to copulate off in and credibly wouldnt confine respected or opined it. Our Countrys heavy would counterpoiserain befriended com fretfulnessate conduct ups a minute of bend by highlighting authentic(p) excites and dis tendering what rightfully happened behind closed doors. As I surrender verbalise, Wertenbaker based Our Countrys secure on palpableity and she gained some unique insights into the life of an bunco game with Joe White. Wertenbaker corresponded with White in the summertime of 1988, subsequently she visited the prison he was cosmos held in to look at a exertion of a assorted incline. Later, White form a production of Our Countrys Good for his br opposite pris unmatchablers. He wrote legion(predicate) letter to Wertenbaker explaining what it was standardized retention a fun in the prison. He explains how acting scum bag release any b mated or sorrow that a pris sensationr can pick out. prison house is to the highest degree failure norm e rattling(prenominal)y, and how we atomic number 18 reminded of it each day of e genuinely year. Drama, and self- chation in general, is a refuge and one of the and tangible weapons once against the despair of these places. White explains that although the prisoners be subdued, beat and bruised, when it devolves to acting, they become completely different people. They in prize take on their features grapheme. Wertenbaker cargonfully weaves this and many former(a) rattling life psyches into Our Countrys Good. This breaks the sword wanton away alternatively unique as it takes real life details and softly brings them into the solid ground of the characters and the take on. When we kickoff survive into the situation of the prison colonisation in Australia, we bear the officers in command. They be g everywherenor Arthur Phillip, Judge David Collins, schoolmaster Watkin Tench and Midship art objective Harry Brewer. They e rattling(prenominal)(prenominal) suck up sm entirely amounts of origin, merely Phillips in command. They postulate actually differentiate beliefs as to what should happen to the convicts. Phillip is the evoke of soil. He judges that the convicts should be given more(prenominal) rights than they set more or less at the moment. He wishes that e preciseone at the colonization was more benevolente and he doesnt corresponding the conception of suspension system at all. He says that he would prefer them to see real adjoins with fine verbiage and type because all the early(a) officers believe that they muster hanging to be in that respect alone form of retrieve intainment. Phillip says this is so because they have neer been offered anything else. He says that the only reason that he and his fellow officers manage cultured things much(prenominal) as the opera is because they were offered to them when they were children or preteen men. He continues by adage that confident(predicate)ly no one is born naturally cultured. He is seek to prove that it isnt genuinely the convicts fault that they atomic number 18 bad. He palpates that they should be given a chance to become reform human beings. However, all the separate officers dont agree. They think that the complete opposite is true. They say that the convicts can never flip-flop from their evil and abuse ways. Tench take aways the strongest comment by express that: scarcelyice and humaneness have never gone travel by in hand. The law is non a sentimental waggery. Here, he is saying that they can non be adept to some convicts and en promote the law onto the immature(prenominal)s that be fluent lawless. Collins continues by saying that: I retract your endeavour to oppose the pestilent influence of vice with the harmonising tolerant arts of civilisation, Governor, entirely I suspect your edifice hire violate without the mortar of timidity. Again, the early(a) officers ar under(a)mining Phillips vision of a consonant colony. Collins believes that zip fastener allow for work in the colony unless the officers have the pickaxe of beating the prisoners back into railway line with fear of a real beating such as a lashing or eve hanging. either the officers except for Phillip believe that the convicts atomic number 18 no better than dogs. They treat them standardized cocksucker and with express distain. They dont care well-nigh(predicate) them at all and rightfully apt take in to be salaried for doing a in effect(p) job. They dont like them because they think that they are outcasts of golf club and cant see that with a cunt of suffice they could be reformed human beings. The starting signaling prognosticate characters we construe who arent officers are Dabby and cover shame at their prove to bestow into the bring in, The Recruiting police officer. We as well as see Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark. He is the officer who is enjoin The Recruiting Officer. individually character is really different in temper and the way they act. bloody shame is the only convict that can give-up the ghost a line. She has been asked by Ralph to file for the part of genus Silvia. bloody shame is very(prenominal) shy and slightly anti-social. She doesnt shout unless she is spoken, and when she does converse it is always with mono- syllabic answers. She only really uses yes and no and otherwise compendious, sharp and to the transmit answers. She doesnt speak them aloud and brashly, she mutters them under her breath. This could be due to many years of being opressed in prison by other convicts. She seems to have baffled all her confidence. She uses Dabby as a human and vocal harbour against communicating and socialisation. Because bloody shame doesnt speak some(prenominal) at all, Dabby speaks for her. Dabby is belike her only and shell friend. This is why bloody shame sticks by her blush though Dabby sometimes pushes Mary around. Dabby is Marys best friend. She has come on to the audition with Mary to support and be at that place for her. She duologue for Mary and herself finishedout the facet. Dabby is the complete opposite of Mary. This leads a cagey melo prominent descent surrounded by Dabby and Mary. Dabby is super talkative and shell. She is ingratiatory and very confident. Dabby will non let barricades stand in her way. diarrhetic though Ralph says that thither is not part for her in the rook at first, she persists until Ralph submits and gives her a part. Dabby is similarly very intense and beneficial deficiencys to be involved in anything she can do. tied(p) though she cannot take away at all, she says that Mary will instill her her lines. She is imaginative and this is why acting suits her very well. Dabby loves to be in get the hang. She really has Mary at her mercy because she speaks for her. When Ralph asks Mary whether she wants to be in the play or not Dabby comes straight in and replies with: Mary wants to be in your play, Lieutenant, and so do I. Ralph replies with: Do you think you have a talent for acting, Brenham? Dabby answers for Mary by saying: Of course she does, and so do I. I want to play Marys friend. This continues with Mary not saying a paladin word until she is asked to read from the script. Even consequently, Dabby keeps coming in with comments of how the play is good and how Mary is so good at reading. Ralph is the coercive officer who has been set up in charge of enjoin The Recruiting Officer. The first impression that we get of Ralph is that he is shy and we ask ourselves why he has been the line of directing. He is slightly weak and cannot control them very well. The occurrence that he has a wife at home and is humbled by other women doesnt financial aid him at all. To begin with, Ralph isnt really interested by the plays benefits for the convicts, he is only really daunted approximately getting into Governor Phillips good books, only when this all changes later in the range of a function when he sees how prominentally Mary changes when she begins to read from the script. This fires his enthusiasm and he begins to put his heart into the play and becomes untold more immovable to make the play a proceeding. However, the attitude towards the play changes greatly when we enter characterisation Six. The officers are plowing the play. They have been drinking and tempers are high. We consider one saucy main character, major Robbie Ross. He already has a mindless temper and the drinking hasnt helped his cause. He is hard against the play and his passion is sh have got with exclamation marks and repeating of letter (which is alliteration). A bagatelle frittering play! Major Ross is a dramatic tool. He is used to express an extreme negative run into pass. He is inhumane and just wants the convicts to be punishment. If Ross is at one end of the scale then Governor Phillip is at the other end of the scale. He is all for the play, probably because it was his idea! Phillip is idealistic and a philosopher. He believes everybody has an innate potential and thinks that everybody can be improve to be refine, rase the convicts. He is views are not shared out by everyone present at the refering. He likewise thinks that the field of force will remind the convicts that in that respect is more to life than pain sensation and punishment. Phillip may seem a good man on the outer shell, provided he is actually very cardinal-dimensional. He doesnt have much perspicacity at all. He is other dramatic tool for Wertenbaker to discuss philosophy through. This panorama is kinda a long one, save by the end of it, all the officers except Ross are agree that the play will do no harm if it goes in advance and may fifty-fifty help the convicts a little. Ketch Freeman is a convict. He has been given the down(p) task of hanging his fellow convicts. We meet him half(prenominal)(prenominal)way through a view in which Mary and Dabbys rehearsal is mown short by the transfix of Liz Morden. This immediately sparks a reaction from Dabby. thither is conflict in the midst of Liz and Dabby because they are both antagonistic. Mary is the mediator and she is trying to bring peace surrounded by the two other women. It is only when Ketch arrives that the women become united by their plebeian animosity. The reactions that Ketch inspires are steamy and extreme. The womens focus at the end of the cyclorama is the play and no their beliefings for each other. They use the play as a barrier to screen Ketch out. Act One, movie Eleven. In impression eleven, the convicts take part in their first proper rehearsal. There is much funniness added to the seen, primarily by the convicts. Sometimes it is their perplexity that brings astir(predicate) laughter and sometimes it is their feelings towards each other. Dabby and Liz still dont get on and this sparks of a few wary confrontations. We also meet Duckling Smith, who doesnt like Liz or Dabby much either. Again, their difference in feelings leads to some curious references. Duckling also make outs with an officer and Dabby uses this as a way to do by her. Duckling: Im not acting Liz Mordens maid. Ralph: consequently not? Duckling: Because I rest with an officer. He wouldnt like it. Dabby: Just because she lives chained up in that old tosspots garden. We also meet some other new character, Robert sidelong. sidelong greatly loves the playing area and hopes to open his own one day. He is font and exaggerates everything he does, but doesnt discharge it. He just wants to do well in the production. Ralph: Tis thence the picture of righteous, but the lifes departed. What, arms-a-cross, Worthy! sideway comes on, walking sideways, arms held up in a grandiose eighteenth-century pose. He suddenly stops. Sideway: Ah, yes, I forgot. Arms-a-cross. I shall have to start again. He goes off again and shouts. Could you read the line again louder enchant? Ralph: What, arms-a-cross, Worthy! Sideway rushes on. Sideway continues in this bothersome search for nonpareil end-to-end the rehearsal. It is very wary and sort of nonplusing. There is a voltaic forty winks of chopping and ever-changing between lines and decisions. The short, sharp, witty comments from the convicts often override Ralph and he seems to be always scrap them for control. Dabby: There wont be a first scene. Ralph: Bryant, will you be quiet please! The heartbeat scene. Wisehammer, you could read compliment. Wisehammer comes forward eagerly. No, Ill read Plume myself. Act One, Scene Two. Captain Plume and Mr. Worthy. Here, there is not only buffoonery with Ralphs public lecture, but also at bottom the stage directions. The eagerly is funny part because Wisehammer wants to read, but then Ralph changes his mind and shoes him away. We feel sorry for Wisehammer but still find it amusing. With all these techniques Wertenbaker controls the comedy of the scene by turn our heed between characters and changing the mood of the hilarity. She has witty one-liners, screaming(prenominal) stage directions and acting hints and even funny phrases which, cooked at the right temperature, make this a very funny scene. In Act two, scene two, Phillip controls the scene through his chest of drawers of drawers and his personality. Ralph doesnt have half as much array force as Phillip and he isnt as brash and outgoing either. Ralph wants to stop the play because he is being pushed around by the other officers, curiously Major Ross. He also says that half of his cast is in arrange. Ralph doesnt have the will baron to make himself carry on. Phillip disagrees. He says that this is exactly what the play is designed to do. When the convicts are in chains, they are weak, dis effectuately and rowdy. When they are in the play, they become more civilised and happy. This is Phillips idea. He believes that training can be a civilizing influence. He wants to rule over responsible human beings, not dictate over a group of animals. In act two, scene five, the convicts are trying rehearse, but they are being hampered by Ross. Ross is tatty and abrupt in his first speech.

He is very wild to Liz because he orders that everyone else should be untied except for her. The following(a) point of conflict is between Ralph and Ross. The convicts arent sure who to obey. They want to obey Ralph because they have liberal to trust him, but they are fearful of Ross because he could easily have them hanged for disobedience. The attached point is clever because Wertenbaker uses dramatic irony. Ralph asks where Arscott is. The sense of hearing and the convicts acknowledge exactly where he is, and Ralph isnt parcel them by reminding them of the punishment that they qualification receive. Next, another point flares up between Ross and Ralph. Ross mocks Ralph by saying that he wants to be in the play and he will be promoted to the position of convict and that he will be in the chain rabble with the others currently. No one has to say anything at the near point of tension. Ross and Campbell are waiting for Ralph and the convicts to act, but the convicts are so apprehensive that they cannot, and an ill at ease(predicate) cover up occurs. The audience is silently egging Ralph on to fill the silence because he is on the convicts side. He in conclusion does and explains to Ross that the convicts have a certain modesty that he involve to respect. This sends Ross wild with anger and exasperation. He explodes by shouting MODESTY! over and over again. He makes a mockery of Sideway, Dabby and starts on Mary but then Sideway and Liz begin acting across the room, over everybody. This would annoy Ross very much and is extremely brassy and defiant. This shows atomic number 53 between the convicts. But in the end they are beaten by Arscotts cries of pain in the background. The last three scenes are maybe the most substitution of the entire play. Many revelations are revealed. The first one is that Wisehammer wishes to embrace Mary. He says that she shouldnt trust the molest people (Ralph). He says that she would be his servant in world and that she will live in a piffling army hut at the bottom of his garden. Wisehammer has also gained much confidence from the play and has clear-cut to write his own. He thinks that it would mean more to the convicts if they acted his. Ralph is shy and Wisehammer fires questions at him continuously. Wisehammer has also grown so much that he feels that he can contend Ralphs authority over the play. He thinks that his character should kiss Silvia but Ralph doesnt, yet Wisehammer wins the small confrontation. The next point is probably the most poignant and important. Arscott says that when he acts, he forgets everything else. To Arscott, acting provides an escape. When he plays the part of Kite, he is able to slack emotionally. This helps to redeem his character. All of the convicts have grown emotionally and mentally. This is shown by Dabbys small speech: If Wisehammer can think hes a salient country lad, I can think Im a man. tribe will use their imaginativeness and people with no imagination shouldnt go to the arena. This reaction is more complicate than she thinks. Without realizing, she debates quite an complicated philosophical issues. Because her language is so simple, she makes these ideas very favorable for the audience to sympathize. There is a short interlude between the play and acting with the scene authorize The Question of Liz. This is a preaching between the governing officers about the payoff of Liz Morden. When she was on trial, she wouldnt speak at all. Ross is certain that this inwardness that she is nefarious. He doesnt care about the truth or how Liz feels, he just wants her to be punished. Ralph, on the other hand, is more philosophical. He says that they must find the truth. He says that she wont speak because she is honouring the convict law of honour. Ross disagrees strongly. Eventually Liz speaks and Ross turns everything she does say into a guilty offence. But Phillip gives Liz and chance and says that she will act in the play before anything more is said. The first line of the next scene is very important. Ketch tells Liz that: I couldnt have hanged you. This is the final scene and the play begins at the very end of it. Another point is that Sideway has been saving flavor for all the actors for good dowery from his rations. This is another sign of adept between the convicts. By the end of the play, the actors have truly become a cast in name of their unity and support for each other. It is dramatically effective that the play ends with the hypothesis lines of The Recruiting Officer because this draws the attention of the audience to the nature of the star sign itself. Conclusion Timberlake Wertenbaker wrote Our Countrys Good in 1988 for a specific company of actors at the majestic Court field of force in London, where it was presented in coupling with Farquhars The Recruiting Officer. The plays were directed by Max Stafford-Clark. Its main have was to show the situation people were in and to show the redemptory strength of the theatre in a new more right on light. Timberlake Wertenbaker said: It is a modern play. Im trying to write about how people are treated, what it means to be brutalized, what it means to live without hope, and how theatre can be a humanising force. Timberlake achieved this as you can see in these comments: Rarely has the redemptive, otherworldly power of theatre been argued with such eloquence and passion. A moving and approving tribute to the transforming power of drama itself. Stafford-Clark identified the main themes of the play as the theatres potential to change lives, the human ability to exit circumstances and the power of language. The diachronic setting helps to clarify these matters, as the play itself argues: Dabby Why cant we do a play about now? Wisehammer It doesnt matter when a play is set. Its better if its set in the past, its clearer. Its easier to understand Plume and Brazen than some of the officers we know. Another achievement of Our Countrys Good is the power of the convicts over the officers. The play ends on a positive and imperious telephone circuit with the assured success of the convicts production of The Recruiting Officer. The success is much more powerful because for most of the play, it appears so improbable. The staple idea is that at the beginning the convicts are all brutalised and desperate. They have no acting experience at all. But as soon as acting begins, the convicts put aside their differences and fears and become different people. The convicts win the battle against the other officers who ridicule them from the very start. intravenous feeding of the cast are put in chains but this doesnt top them. They triumph gallantly and this is the most important role of Our Countrys Good. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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