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Submitted by AdolfAdiDassler on March 15, 2008
Category: English
Words: 5850 | Pages: 24
Views: 223
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Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker
"Our Country's Good," a play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, is about a
group of English convicts bound for Australia by sea in 1788. In the
first scene, Sideways, a convict on board the ship, is being brutally
whipped and we are introduced to the constant, overwhelming fear,
hunger and despair that the convicts are going through.
We are also introduced to all the officials on board. They are
debating the punishment of hanging that three of the convicts have
received for stealing, and we see the different attitudes different
characters have to this. Governor Arthur Phillip supports a humane
approach to dealing with the convicts, but Judge David Collins
believes that the law must be upheld and that a crime, however petty,
is still a crime. Captain Watkin Tench says that the convicts are
beyond redemption anyway, and Midshipman Harry Brewer takes the
opinion that the convicts have become desensitized to hangings and
even consider it "their theatre". In the end Governor Phillip believes
that a play for the convicts to put on, with "fine language [and]
sentiment" is the way to go in order to encourage the convicts to
change their ways in this new environment.
We learn the play chosen play is to be "The Recruiting Officer" (1706)
by Irish actor-turned-playwright George Farquhar (1677-1707). It is
about his experiences working as a recruiting officer for the army for
three years, and one his last works before he died a year after it was
performed. Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark begins holding auditions for
the play. Ralph Clark is interested in timid convict Mary Brenham for
the play, as she knows how to write and therefore can make copies of
the script. Ralph Clark has the role of "Sylvia" in mind for...
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