OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD
2) ACT TWO SUMMARIES
ACT TWO SCENE ONE; Visiting Hours
Characters: Liz, Wisehammer, Arscott, Caesar, sideway, Mary, duckling
Summary of scene:
Liz, Wisehammer, Arscott and Caesar are chained in prison. Liz recounts her life story to others.
Sentenced to death for stealing a watch, she was granted the King’s pardon and exiled. Wisehammer
declares his innocence and Arscott explains that he brought what he thought was a compass – in fact a
piece of paper with ‘North’ written on it – from a sailor and tried to escape to china. Sideway, Mary
and Ducking Come to visit them to rehearse the play.
Aim:
Lighting: In a prison. Dark and Dank. Dark Blues and greens (flood) In a prison. Dark and dank.
Sound: dripping water and chains
Set: Liz, Wisehammer, Arscott and Caesar are in chains. Mary has a copy of the recruiting officer,
Duckling brings Melinda’s fan, or something representing it.
Props: Liz, Wisehammer, Arscott and Caesar are in chains. Mary has a copy of TRO, suckling
brings Melinda’s fan, or something representing it.
Costume:
Due to the private discussion.
Relaxed costume but still smart- Jacket on back of chair.
Acting:
- LIZ;
The scene opens with a monologue recounting her life story. The language is difficult because it makes
use of so-called ‘canting’ words -the dialect used by the working class in eighteenth- century London.
It is important to research crime and poverty in eighteenth century England to fully understand Liz’s
speech, but at the core of it is her deep sense of betrayal- a characteristic common to many criminals.
At this point in the play, she was finally beginning to do something she enjoyed (Rehearsing the
Recruiting officer) when Ross puts her in prison for allegedly stealing food. As Linda comments, “
Everyone in the story has let her down and now it has happened again, so she has got a sense of ill-
usage and bad luck – “Born under a ha’penny planet” is that awful doomy feeling people get:
“whatever I do im just doomed to have bad luck, but its somehow everyone’s fault but mine.”’
matter-of-fact - she doesn’t dwell on self-pity - the tone would need to be almost blank, as if reciting
the weather forecast ith a wry sense of humour - laughing at herself - here there’s more life in the
voice and this approach will make her more likeable telling the story to amuse and entertain
Liz’s mention of her ‘good crew of rufflers’ is worth exploring. As Linda explains, ‘Arscott, who is only
(the play) briefly, and Kable, who you don’t actually meet, become Lizzie’s replacement family. The
other women aren’t really friends with her- she’s the lowest of the low.’
Up to this point, Liz’s lines have been short and gruff. Here, though, at the beginning of act two, she
lets rip. But as Sally Rogers, who played Liz in the 1998 revival, points out, its also important not to go
over the top emotionally: ‘You can be tempted – and indeed I was – to be a little bit reflective and
maudlin, and you’re dammed if you do it like that. You have to attack it like a saxophone solo. I tried
to weave little colours into it, which get lost when you’re playing that level of rawness.”
At the end of the scene, some of the other convicts arrive to rehearse the play with her and the others.
Linda argues that this is a key turning point for Liz: ‘It literally saves her life when they come to rescue
her,” she says. ‘Even though she rejects them, the very fact that they’ve come is extraordinary to her.’
Although Liz is presented as a violent and dangerous woman at the beginning of the play, by
the time the audience sees her in Act Two Scene One, she has begun to connect more with
the rest of the convicts that are in the play with her. Interestingly, Liz is the only character in
the play who was not drawn from the source material but is entirely made up, although
based on a dangerous female prisoner, called Josie, that Wertenbaker interviewed during the
,workshopping of the play. I interpret Liz as being a hard woman because of her criminal
upbringing but to have some vulnerability as we see here and also in the second rehearsal
when she cannot bear to hear the cries of Arscott being whipped. Here, Liz speaks in a
‘canting’ idiom which is difficult for the audience to understand. I would try to make sure
that I conveyed the gist of the monologue through my emphasis of certain individual words
and phrases that sound like swear words. There are lots of references to her selling herself
for money or food so when I say ‘Miss Laycock’ and ‘mother of saints’, I’m really referring to
selling my body and although I am being crude I use a euphemism which does show that I
have begun to have a bit more self-respect. I will be very bedraggled at this point in the play
wearing a dirty grey blouse with a torn bodice and a ripped, ankle-length skirt. My face and
arms will be covered in grime which I will achieve using stage make up and will also make
me look bruised. I will be chained to a pole, centre stage with the other prisoners, also
chained, stage left of me. I am not facing them directly although I am speaking to them. This
will show the lack of relationship that I have with the others at this point. When I start
speaking, my tone is harsh; ‘Luck?’ I would scoff after this and then go on more familiarly,
‘Don’t know the word.’ Another laugh, this time to myself, ‘Shifts its bob when I comes near’
with an emphasis on ‘I’ to show her sense of being particularly unlucky. When I say ‘Born
under a ha’penny planet’, I think this is the opposite of ‘born with a silver spoon’ and I would
add another mirthless laugh. I pass unemotionally over the facts that ‘Mum leaves’ but when
I say ‘My own father’ there is a sense of disbelief in my voice as I remember the cruelty of a
father betraying his own child. I will show something of the spirit of the character when
describing the older brother, by imitating his gruff voice saying ‘men want Miss Laycock,
don’t look at your mug.’ in a harsh way; again laughing at myself as I remember. I will also
imitate Governor Phillip saying ‘You could nob it here, Lizzie’ putting on a received
pronunciation accent and holding out my little finger to suggest gentility while I articulate
the sentence clearly. This will show my ability to find humour, even in the darkest moments.
I would smile while thinking about the play, ‘good crew of rufflers’ to suggest I have become
more friendly as a result of ‘civilised’ company, but then, as I reflect on Ross I would make
my face a grim line of self-pity saying, ‘Ross don’t like my mug’ harshly. The casual way that I
contemplate impending death, ‘up the ladder to rest for good’ saying the line without a beat
or tone of regret shows how brutalised I have become. But when I say ‘Well’ I would pause
for a moment, sadly, before summing up ‘Lizzie Morden’s life’ and then turn casually to
Wisehammer to ask, ‘And you?’ as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be facing
the death penalty and I am simply socialising with a new group of acquaintances.
- WISEHAMMER
He is determined to return to England to proclaim his innocence having been wrongly accused of
stealing from a snuff shop. he is Jewish. Direct contrast in Liz and Wise hammers upbringing “Speak
in English Wisehammer’
- ARSCOTT
Has failed to escape because he was deceived into buying what turned out to be a useless ‘compass’
- CAESAR
Things to note; He is loyal to his country. Theme of Patriotism.
- Wisehammer and Liz have different language
- “Speak in English”
- Direct contrast to their upbringing
- Wisehammer is Jewish
- “There’s no escape” Physical representation through chains. Pulls on his change
- The scene opens with a long and difficult speech from Liz Morden. Reading it aloud will give
you a sort of sense, but it uses obsolete slang words, the ‘secret language’ of the criminal
fraternity, which I couldn’t find in any dictionary.
, - Sideway and the two women come in here. Sideway’s flamboyant ‘darlingy’ entrance obviously
puts Liz’s back up, but lightens the mood. With Duckling’s news that Ralph has gone to talk to
the Governor, and Mary’s attitude that there is play-work to be done, the mood abruptly lifts
and lightens.
- Notice Mary’s ‘This is the theatre. We will believe you.’ This idea joins our collection of ideas
about the theatre and its ability to carry an audience along into belief, through the actor’s own
‘believing’.
- Example response Act Two Scene One, ‘Visiting Hours’ is a critical scene in Our
Country’s Good. The play follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a small number of
transported convicts who found themselves, far from home, in Botany Bay as a result
of having committed crimes in Britain, where the prisons, in the late 1700s, were full
to over-flowing. Although set in 1789, the play is not meant to be a ‘history play’.
Wertenbaker has made plain that the play is a ‘metaphor’ about the present day, not
an exploration of Georgian values. Liz Morden, the most dangerous woman in the
colony, has been charged with stealing food from the stores and is being held,
chained, in a prison cell along with Arscott and Caesar, who have been captured
trying to make an escape. With them is Wisehammer who has been jailed by the
bully, Ross because, as Ross said, ‘You’re Jewish aren’t you? You’re guilty!’ One of the
themes of this play is the exercise of justice and this theme is explored through the
many injustices that are committed against the convicts. Their ‘jailors’ – the Officers
in this play – don’t appear in this scene although their oppressive presence should
always be felt. While I will direct Act 2 Scene 1 to convey Wertenbaker’s message
about ‘what it means to be brutalised’ and ‘to live without hope’, I will also show how
being in the play together has begun to have an effect on Liz and her fellow convicts
and has helped to create a sense of community amongst them. I want my audience to
see how being involved in the play has helped the convicts to begin to see meaning –
and the possibility of a future – in their own lives. Although this optimism is not
present here. The section from line 33 to 83 reveals the different characters of Liz,
Wisehammer, Arscott and Caesar. Liz has already described her youth in her
monologue but she reveals herself her to be a realist. I would direct her to ask
Wisehammer how he got to be in the camp with a genuinely inquisitive tone. It is the
first time we see her asking someone about themselves. I would direct Wisehammer
to speak clearly when he describes, in single abstract nouns, how he has come to be
where he is. The contrast between Liz’s detailed ‘history’ of her background and
Wisehammer’s answer is striking; I would ask him to pause between each noun as if
trying to find the best word to describe his situation ‘Betrayal’ pause, ‘Barbarous
falsehood’ pause, and then be more animated when he says ‘Intimidation’, looking
hard at Liz (who is herself quite intimidating’) and then conclude emphatically with
‘Injustice’ – a key theme of the play. I would ask the actor to sound the plosive b
sound in the first two words very powerfully to show Wisehammer’s interest in
words. Similarly, when he says the words that being with ‘in’, ‘Intimidation’ and
‘Injustice’ and then ‘Innocent’ I want him to stress the ‘in’ prefix. This will show his
passion for language as well as his vehement feelings of having been treated unfairly.
Liz shows that she feels puzzled by Wisehammer as he doesn’t speak words that she
can understand, she has more of a connection with Arscott who she describes as
‘thinking English’ because like her, he speaks the language of the ignorant, criminal
class. This is ‘English’ to Liz. Arscott, like Wisehammer, feels that he has been
cheated, but he is unable to articulate his experience, lacking Wisehammer’s
vocabulary. His repeated cry of ‘There’s no escape!’ shows his limitations but also his
desperate feelings to be free. Having been cheated by a Sailor who has exploited his
ignorance as well as his illiteracy, he can only wonder ‘Why didn’t it work?’ Arscott is
strong and macho but easily outwitted because of his lack of education. I want him to
show his feelings of impotence and failure when he pleads with Wisehammer, ‘What
does it say?’ in a plaintive voice. Caesar expresses his feelings of alienation in the
colony; his greatest wish is to return to Madagascar and his Ancestors. He expresses
the wishes of all dispossessed people to return to his homeland. I would cast Caesar
