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Summary Themes and Context of Our Country's Good - Our Country's Good
Detailed summary, analysis and exploration of themes and context for the play Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker.
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THEMESPunishment, rehabilitation, redemption
● Some officers believe their only role is to punish the convicts (i.e. Major Ross)
○ This is done through lashing until flesh and bone are exposed or hanging.
○ The play opens with Sideway getting flogged, setting the tone immediately
○ Arscott gets flogged in scene 2.6 as a threat to the convicts’ progress towards
redemption (we see Wisehammer and Liz try to act over this noise in protest)
● Some officers believe in rehabilitating the convicts simply to form a functioning society once
their sentences have been serves
○ Tench:“teach them to farm, to build houses, teach them a sense of respect for
property [...] teach them to work” 1.6, page 72
● Phillips takes rehabilitation to the next level by including redemption
○ This is not about religious redemption for the ‘sin’ of their crimes, but instead about
redeeming the convicts’ humanity
○ Ralph: “The Reverend says he’s given up on her, sir” Phillips: “The Reverend’s an
ass, Lieutenant. I am speaking of redeeming her humanity” 2.2, page 108
○ The way Phillips and Ralph go about achieving this is through the humanising art of
theatre with the play ‘The Recruitment Officer’
Language, silence, voice
Mary and Liz are characters notable for their silence.
● Mary shy about speaking and her lines are delivered “inaudibly” 1.5 page 62
● Liz lacks confidence in speech itself, not her ability to speak (e.g. when she’s accused she
says “Because it wouldn’t have mattered [...] Speaking.” 2.10 page 132)
Mary takes on some of Sylvia’s boldness (unafraid in final scene to contradict Arscott and place
herself centre in the curtain call or to speak for Wisehammer about his prologue)
● “No, Arscott [she places herself in the middle]” 2.11, page 134
● Wisehammer: “There’s - there’s-” Mary: “There’s his prologue.” 2.11, page 139
The rehearsal process grant’s Liz a respect and value for her voice she has never experienced (she
struggles initially with lines but by her trial she speaks eloquently in response to Phillips’s good
wishes for the play).
● Instead of: “I thought we was acting” “don’t look at your mug” “I’m nibbed”
● She says: “I didn’t steal the food.” “No. I was there before.” “Yes”
Farquar’s play draws confidence from them both.
There is a shift from monologue to dialogue, that emphasises the role theatre plays in bringing
isolated people together to form a community. In the opening scene 1.1, Wisehammer, Arscott and
Mary speak out in monologues about their own internal thoughts but not to each other. By 2.11,
everyone is conversing with each other harmoniously and they uplift each other, fighting pre-show
nerves together.
, Value/Power of Theatre
The argument
the theatre is a waste of time and resources, pointless, silly, corrupting, evil, dangerous
the theatre is pleasurable, good for the mind, good for the body, enriching, humanising
- From Wertenbaker’s archive, written at the start of her writing process
This theme is articulated most obviously in ‘Act 1 Scene 6: The Authorities Discuss the Merits of the
Theatre’. Dawes and Tench see the play as a trivial waste of time. Reverend Johnston worries if the
content is suitable. Ross warns the act of putting on a play may be subversive. Collins and Phillips
argue theatre is a marker of civilisation and may have a positive influence on the convicts.
● Dawes: “Put the play on, don’t put it on, it won’t change the shape of the universe.”
● Tench: “It is at most a passable diversion, an entertainment to while away the hours.”
● Reverend: “The play doesn’t propagate catholic doctrine, does it, Ralph?”
● Ross: “The theatre leads to threatening theory” “order will become disorder” [about the
play’s context:] “Even if it teaches insubordination, disobedience, revolution?”
● Collins: “it can do no harm, since it might, possibly, do some good”
● Phillips: “The theatre is an expression of civilisation.”
● Clark: “saying those well-balanced lines [...], they seem to quire a dignity [...] to lose some of
their corruption.”
The convicts also express their views in ‘The Meaning of Plays’, and the different styles of
Stanislavski and Brecht can be seen mirrored in them.
● Dabby (Stanislavski): “I want to see a play that shows life as we know it.”
● Wisehammer (Brecht): “A play should make you understand something new. If it tells you
what you already know, you leave it as ignorant as you went it.”
Wertenbaker emphasises that it is the process of putting on a play rather than the outcome that carries
the greatest value through her structuring of ‘Our Country’s Good’. Her play ends at the moment the
convicts’ performance starts, showing us that the journey of putting on a play is where the most
discovery is made.
Wertenbaker doesn’t present theatre as a solution for all: Dabby plans on escaping, thinking the
production’s value will end with their final performance. Sideway, Wisehammer, Liz, and Ketch
however hope it may be the start of something for them to continue.
Guilt and Innocence
● All convicts have been found guilty by English law but their crimes are varied (e.g. Ketch has
been implicated in murder, Mary committed a small theft, Wisehammer is likely falsely
accused)
● By today’s standards, the brutality of the officers is far more condemnable than the
aforementioned crimes
● Officers have an inflated moral high-ground and see themselves as almost a different species
to the convicts
○ “I’m not a convict: I don’t sin.” Ralph Clark, 1.10 page 86
○ “You want this vice-ridden vermin to enjoy themselves?” Major Ross, 1.6 page 71
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