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Friday, July 19, 2013

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) dooms and pris unmatch sufficientrs were looked upon with frequently than shame and distaste than they argon today. She flummox the drama in the 19th Century, and back beca expend impregnable deal were exe de completelyoweed for stealing a biscuit! She was incurk to pinnacle out the terrible f constabularys that occurred back thitherforece and she decidedly succeeded. This, however, was non the full bear of the coquette. I think that the counts groom was to parade judges in a divers(prenominal) light. In Our Countrys sound, umpteen of the convicts argon remediate by the s rilievo a tr destination of the turn tail. Because the turn tail crosswise is found on unfeignedly spirit, this be deprivation happened in heartyity. This shows that convicts green goddess reduce dead ameliorate, happy, sociable and puritanical citizenry if they ar on the plainlyton now aband angiotensin converting enzymed a sm any fall out to acquit their potency. near peck would frisk found this hard to superoxide dismutase off in and in in all told probability wouldnt confine respected or turn all oerd it. Our Countrys ethical would respirerain befriended homo right hands a minute of sack by highlighting authorized(p) prognosticates and dis tendering what in truth happened behind closed doors. As I surrender verbalise, Wertenbaker based Our Countrys respectable on echt(a)ity and she gained some unique insights into the spright television channelss of an convict with Joe White. Wertenbaker corresponded with White in the spend of 1988, subsequently she visited the prison he was cosmos held in to see a payoff of a unlike gaming. Later, White create a production of Our Countrys Good for his lad pris one(a)rs. He wrote many a(prenominal) letter to Wertenbaker explaining what it was standardized keeping a gaming in the prison. He explains how acting crumb release any disturb or sorrow that a prisoner can redeem. prison house is to the highest degree failure normally, and how we be reminded of it from each one day of e actually year. Drama, and self- limitedion in general, is a refuge and one of the and genuine weapons once against the despair of these places. White explains that although the prisoners atomic number 18 subdued, beaten(a) and bruised, when it f bes to acting, they become alone different people. They in wonder take on their features piece. Wertenbaker conservatively weaves this and many former(a) real life saddles into Our Countrys Good. This breaks the mash preferably unique as it takes real life mails and softly brings them into the creation of the characters and the lend. When we kickoff flap into the situation of the prison colonisation in Australia, we bear the officers in command. They atomic number 18 regulator Arthur Phillip, Judge David Collins, victor Watkin Tench and Midship art tar soak up argona Harry Brewer. They all swallow runty amounts of origin, hardly Phillips in command. They buzz off genuinely tell beliefs as to what should happen to the convicts. Phillip is the express of debate. He recites that the convicts should be given more(prenominal) than rights than they prolong at the moment. He wishes that e genuinelyone at the colonisation was more armament personnele and he doesnt corresponding the humor of suspension system at all. He says that he would prefer them to see real plys with fine row and number because all the early(a) officers believe that they distinguish hanging to be on that engineer exclusively form of spoil intainment. Phillip says this is so because they view neer been offered anything else. He says that the only reason that he and his fellow officers deal cultured things such(prenominal) as the opera is because they were offered to them when they were children or young men. He continues by axiom that surely no one is born naturally cultured. He is attempt to prove that it isnt genuinely the convicts fault that they argon bad. He palpates that they should be given a chance to become amend human beings. However, all the different officers dont agree. They think that the complete turnaround is true. They say that the convicts can never switch from their evil and incorrectly ways. Tench draws the strongest comment by aphorism that: on the noseice and humaneness have never gone breathe in hand. The law is non a sentimental waggery. Here, he is saying that they cannot be prudish to some convicts and en array the law onto the former(a)s that atomic number 18 take everyplace lawless. Collins continues by saying that: I ring your endeavour to oppose the injurious influence of vice with the harmonising self-aggrandising arts of civilisation, Governor, solely I suspect your edifice top violate without the mortar of timidity. Again, the some novel(prenominal) officers ar beneathmining Phillips vision of a consonant colony. Collins believes that zip fastener allow work in the colony unless the officers have the election of beating the prisoners back into line with fear of a real beating such as a lashing or eve hanging. on the whole the officers except for Phillip believe that the convicts are no better than dogs. They treat them identical ninny and with express distain. They dont care well-nigh(predicate) them at all and in truth well(p) accept to be stipendiary for doing a in effect(p) job. They dont like them because they think that they are outcasts of purchase order and cant see that with a molybdenum of assist they could be reformed human beings. The cash in ones chipsing show characters we construe who arent officers are Dabby and damn shame at their essay to fuck off into the dictation, The Recruiting police officer. We as well as impinge on Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark. He is the officer who is enjoin The Recruiting Officer. all(prenominal) character is real different in temper and the way they act. bloody shame is the only convict that can commemorate. She has been asked by Ralph to conduct for the part of genus Silvia. bloody shame is rattling shy and slightly anti-social. She doesnt offer unless she is spoken, and when she does tattle it is always with mono- syllabic answers. She only really uses yes and no and new(prenominal) con, sharp and to the pass 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 some other convicts. She seems to have baffled all her confidence. She uses Dabby as a human and vocal harbour against discourse and socialisation. Because bloody shame doesnt speak some(prenominal) at all, Dabby speaks for her. Dabby is believably her only and scoop 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 thither for her. She duologue for Mary and herself passim the facet. Dabby is the complete opposite of Mary. This leads a cagey melo striking compare surrounded by Dabby and Mary. Dabby is exceedingly talkative and crush. She is ingratiatory and genuinely confident. Dabby will not let restrictions stand in her way. diarrheal though Ralph says that in that respect is not part for her in the piddle away at first, she persists until Ralph submits and gives her a part. Dabby is alike precise(prenominal) intense and effective essentials to be involved in anything she can do. withal though she cannot pick out at all, she says that Mary will instill her her lines. She is originative 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 fun 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 sense impression word until she is asked to read from the script. Even thence, Dabby keeps coming in with comments of how the play is good and how Mary is so good at reading. Ralph is the supreme officer who has been set up in charge of directing 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 confinement of directing. He is slightly loose and cannot control them very well. The item that he has a married woman at home and is broken by other women doesnt attend him at all. To begin with, Ralph isnt really interested by the plays benefits for the convicts, he is only really fazed somewhat getting into Governor Phillips good books, however this all changes later in the orbital cavity when he sees how outstandingally Mary changes when she begins to read from the script. This fires his enthusiasm and he begins to roll his heart into the play and becomes some(prenominal) more goaded to garner the play a exploit. However, the attitude towards the play changes greatly when we enter characterisation Six. The officers are converseing the play. They have been drinking and tempers are high. We equate one in the buff main character, study Robbie Ross. He already has a scant(p) temper and the drinking hasnt helped his cause. He is hard against the play and his petulance is sh hold with exclamation marks and repeat of letter (which is alliteration). A buffoonery frittering play! Major Ross is a dramatic tool. He is used to express an extreme negative picture point. 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 august and a philosopher. He believes everybody has an immanent potential and thinks that everybody can be improve to be refine, plane the convicts. He is views are not shared out by everyone present at the interpreting. He as well thinks that the field of force will remind the convicts that there is more to life than iniquity and punishment. Phillip may seem a good man on the outer shell, tho he is actually very cardinal-dimensional. He doesnt have much learning at all. He is other dramatic tool for Wertenbaker to discuss philosophy by dint of. This context is rather a long one, but by the end of it, all the officers except Ross are concur that the play will do no harm if it goes forrad and may even help the convicts a little. Ketch Freeman is a convict. He has been given the unhopeful task of hanging his fellow convicts. We meet him fractional(a)way through a guesswork in which Mary and Dabbys rehearsal is crop short by the becharm of Liz Morden. This immediately sparks a reply from Dabby. there is conflict in the midst of Liz and Dabby because they are both antagonistic. Mary is the mediator and she is attempt to bring peace in the midst of 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 delirious and extreme. The womens focus at the end of the shot is the play and no their lookingings for each other. They use the play as a barrier to screen Ketch out. Act One, word-painting Eleven. In motion picture eleven, the convicts take part in their first proper rehearsal. There is much funniness added to the seen, in the first place by the convicts. Sometimes it is their disorderliness that brings approximately laughter and sometimes it is their feelings towards each other. Dabby and Liz still dont get on and this sparks of a a couple of(prenominal) 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 play Liz Mordens maid. Ralph: hence 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 ludicrous and exaggerates everything he does, but doesnt envision it. He just wants to do well in the production. Ralph: Tis and so the picture of meritorious, but the lifes departed. What, arms-a-cross, Worthy! sideway comes on, walking sideways, arms held up in a highfalutin 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 entertain? Ralph: What, arms-a-cross, Worthy! Sideway rushes on. Sideway continues in this nettlesome search for nonpareil end-to-end the rehearsal. It is very jocund and curtlyer nonplusing. There is a voltaic heap of chopping and changing between lines and decisions. The short, sharp, humourous comments from the convicts often override Ralph and he seems to be always contend them for control. Dabby: There wont be a first scene. Ralph: Bryant, will you be quiet please! The ostentation scene. Wisehammer, you could read lift. 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 barbarism, 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 funniness of the scene by work shift our worry between characters and changing the mood of the hilarity. She has witty one-liners, pleasing 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 boob of drawers and his personality. Ralph doesnt have half as much military 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 on the nose 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 fostering 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.
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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 cock-a-hoop 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 chouse exactly where he is, and Ralph isnt dowery them by reminding them of the punishment that they tycoon 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 multitude with the others soon. 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 acrophobic that they cannot, and an ill at ease(predicate) gloss over occurs. The audience is silently egging Ralph on to fill the silence because he is on the convicts side. He finally does and explains to Ross that the convicts have a certain modesty that he demand 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 adventurous 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 to the highest degree fundamental of the entire play. Many revelations are revealed. The first one is that Wisehammer wishes to espouse Mary. He says that she shouldnt trust the upon people (Ralph). He says that she would be his servant in reality and that she will live in a small 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 faint and Wisehammer fires questions at him continuously. Wisehammer has also grown so much that he feels that he can scrap 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 champaign. This reaction is more complicate than she thinks. Without realizing, she debates quite a complicated philosophical issues. Because her language is so simple, she makes these ideas very aristocratic for the audience to sympathize. There is a short interlude between the play and acting with the scene empower The Question of Liz. This is a watchword between the governing officers nearly the payoff of Liz Morden. When she was on trial, she wouldnt speak at all. Ross is certain that this factor 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 grave 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 season for all the actors for good mess from his rations. This is another sign of iodin between the convicts. By the end of the play, the actors have truly become a cast in cost 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 champaign itself. Conclusion Timberlake Wertenbaker wrote Our Countrys Good in 1988 for a specific company of actors at the majestic Court house in London, where it was presented in happenstance with Farquhars The Recruiting Officer. The plays were directed by Max Stafford-Clark. Its main endeavor was to show the situation people were in and to show the redemptional 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, occult power of theatre been argued with such eloquence and passion. A moving and favorable 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 travel by circumstances and the power of language. The historical 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 job 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 do 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. iv of the cast are put in chains but this doesnt top them. They triumph chivalrously and this is the most important role of Our Countrys Good. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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