Timberlake Wertenbaker

A British writer, born in New York and raised in the Basque area of France, she is the daughter of Charles Wertenbaker - a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine - and Lael Tucker Wertenbaker - author. She graduated from St. John's College, USA in 1966 and began her career writing for Time-Life books. She then went on to professional teaching, lecturing in both Greek and French, before moving to London in the early '80s, where she first developed an interest in writing for the theatre, and became a resident-writer for the small theatre companies Shared Experience in 1983 and the Royal Court Theatre from 1984-85.

Having been the Royal Court Theatre's writer-in-residence in 1985, she had her most successful play, 'Our Country's Good' performed there in 1988. She is the author of many plays for the stage and for radio, and has translated works by authors including Jean Anouilh, Racine, Sophocles, and Euripides. She has won many awards, including, an Evening Standard Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Drama Critics' Circle Award, a Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and a Writers' Guild Award. Her other works include the plays 'The Love of the Nightingale' and 'Three Birds Alighting on a Field'.

Crossing Actors

During the plays original run in The Royal Court Theatre, my character was played by a woman, which surprised me. Even more so when that same woman also played Mary Brenham.

I believed that, with the original production of such an intense and politically fuelled play and based on a true story, everything would have to be precise in order to keep the play as true as possible. If the character was a man, it would have to be played by a man. Especially as this was in a society where men had more authority and a bigger hold on women. It didn't cross my mind that there would be a range of different factors that would stop the director and casting director from hiring a seperate actor to portray a character with 6 lines and in only one scene. So, they cast one of the bigger characters in the play to take on one of the smaller officers during the scene they were not in. I thought this was clever and efficient. 

However, I do believe this could have ruined the illusion for the audience, had I watched it in 1988. Due to lack of time within each scenes, Louise Arnold (who played both Mary and Faddy) had only a jack to represent her change of character for The Merits of Theatre - Scene 6. Looking at pictures, I was drawn to the fact every other character in that scene who played the officers had a full costume and looked exactly how they should do. However, Louise had her full convict uniform on that was clear to the eye and the jacket wasn't enough to keep the imagination alive.

Helping the actors

Today I embraced my assistant directing duties and took the actors involved in Scene 3 out to do some character work and line runs.

Scene 3 is the scene where the top officers go shooting birds and embark on a discussion about the object of hanging convicts for punishments. 4/5 actors are females playing males, so I decided to start by helping them embrace their inner male. We focused on altering their movement, their voices and the way they carried themselves.

I started with Sarah. I watched the way she walked as her normal 18 year old female self, then told her to do it again but take certain things into consideration - her weight as a man, her authority and status, and the given circumstances in the scene. Automatically, her head was lifted higher, her knees wee bent slightly and her pace quickened like she had a motive. I reminded her that she would be holding a gun in this scene, and so her arms felt heavier and she took the position of a gunman.

We then focused on voices. I understood that it's difficult for a woman to speak like a man as well as hanging onto volume and pitch. I started by doing breathing exercises with them, feet shoulder width a part, hands by their sides and taking deep breaths in. Then we began by saying the simple line of "Shanon went to the shops" and focused on speaking from the stomach. Each time their voices dropped an octave. Having done the research myself before embarking on this activity with the actors, I knew it was important not to just change your tone and growl like a bear when playing a man, because that wouldn't be believable nor healthy for the throat.

We then did line runs which consisted of the actors putting down their script and simply saying the lines to each other with their new found voices, myself prompting them had they forgotten a line.

I'm not sure if I have helped the actors today, I'd like to think so. When going back into the rehearsal space and them showing the scene again to the director, I did myself actually see an improvement, and it is all about progress.

Character level 100

This morning's exercise was very beneficial in terms of finding our characters and... creating them.

We had to walk around the space as our characters, thinking about pace, energy, facial expressions and idiocyncrices. I began a slow pace, scuffling my shoes, back straight and my hands behind my back. My eyes constantly wandered as if I was seeking for action. We then had to push this more so that our characters were bigger with our physicality stressed much more. 

I think that everyone assumed because the level had increased, the speed of their character also had to. I figured because my character began walking in a slow, careless pace anyway, my speed would surely decrease further the more I had to push it. My knees were bent at every step and my feet scuffled as if I was having a little tap dance.

We pushed it to 80% so that our characters looked almost animated. It was decided that this was actually a good level to keep it on during the scenes for most characters because it have them a better sense of purpose.

I think this was good because it made everyone think about their characters and separate them from themselves, recognise that Shanon/Faddy, Kitty/Liz, Tyler/Ketch are different people and the audience will be able to recognise this.

Simon, Faddy and Perez should definitely go get coffee some time in the future, I'm sure they'd have a lot to talk about.

Sarcastic celebrities

My character, Second Lieutenant William Faddy is a very, as I've stated before, sarcastic and opinionated direct man when he wants to be. In the case of Our Country's Good, my character directs this attitude and demeaner to Ralph.

With some research, I found some celebrities who have the same attitude as my good friend Faddy. 

Simon Cowell is a main one. Whether it's a front for the shows he appear on, he is known for his direct opinion and sarcasm as a judge on such shows as The X Factor and Britains Got Talent. Although Si and Faddy live in complete different worlds, they share the same attitudes when they come accross something they dislike. Simon Cowell is like the modern William Faddy!! Well... except from the different era, job, level of status, appearance and stuff... Simon quite famously quoted "I'm tempted to ask if you sang that the night before your wife left you" when a man audition for his show with the sob story of his wife leaving him. 

Many celebrity bloggers have the same attitude as Simon and Faddy. When they come accross something they dislike, they make it known for attention and controversy. Although their intentions are different, Perez Hilton has this nature and approach with his work. Faddy uses his comments and opinions and personal dislike to put down others within his work, and someone like Perez Hilton is a perfect example of someone who also does that. 

Off text improv

Off text improvisation

I found this exercise hard to begin with because my character is very opaque character - what you see is what you get and what you can't see you simply do not know.

With my partner Sophie I created my own little back story for my sarcastic rude character. She played my wife and we acted out a scene where I was telling her I was leaving for Australia with the convicts.

I've learned that I don't deal with emotions very well: I cover everything up with sarcastic jokes that can come accross quite bitter. When my wife told me she would miss me I laughed rudely and claimed it wouldn't take her 10 minutes until she was in bed with the next man. I didn't mean it but I rejected her love because I think I feel that's the only way I know - maybe because my own father treated his wife like that. 

My wife is simply an object to me like most things in life. I think I reject her love with sarcasm and spite - and most other things - because I'm actually quite insecure with myself. I hold a lot of dislike for myself so I shed that on everyone else, including my wife and Ralph.

This has helped me get into my character even more.

Poor vs Rich exercise

This was fun. It was interesting experiencing a character that was at each end of the wealth board - rich and poor - as personally I am neither but in the middle.

When I was playing an upper class rich character, I immediately went to the stereotypical idea of someone like that: straight back, high head, sour face, pinky fingers out, looking down on anyone and everyone. When I became the poor thief and pick pocketer, my physicality went the completely opposite way: bent backs, eyes to the floor, dead expression. It was interesting as both classes are in the play and although my character is also in the middle, I find I can now relate to both my superior officers in the play and the peasant convicts and understand them better.

A day in the life of

I found the exercise "A day in the life" very interesting. As we did this exercise at the beginning of the process of our play, I was not confident with the plot of the play or any of the characters, including mine, so I found I was a little lost.

By the end of it, I learnt much more. My character is a Second Lieutenant officer, a low rank within the colony, so I figured he might be engaging in day-to-day corporate activities like desk work and prioritising appearance and patrolling the area. Knowing the nature and relationship between the guards and convicts, I think he might also spend some time annoying and terrorising the convicts. It was beneficial speaking to the actors who play a character similar to mine as we could exchange knowledge and I got some ideas off of them, and this added to my research.

Laben technique

Today I think really helped with my character by walking around the space and trying out the different Laben forces and seeing which fit my character the best.

I realised that my character, although there isn't really enough of him featured in the play to find he has different aspects of each force, he does actually cross into an few in my opinion. Basing the forces on time, weight, space and flow, I think Second Lieutenant William Faddy is a pressing character as he sustained, heavy, direct and bound. He's sustained in the sense that he's not a slow mover but he's not fast either, he's just... in the middle. He's heavy with his authority although I think he might forget he's of the lowest rank within the ship as he often, in his scene, let's his mouth run a bit and is often warned by the higher authorities to be quiet. I think he's direct - like pressing but at the same time a little indirect with some of the things he says, like with the force of Wringing. It's quite obvious who he is referring to when he says the line "unlike some" in reference to Ralph Clark, but he doesn't directly address that to him. However, it's contrastingly very direct when he claims he "doesn't trust the director" when he is asked why he is opposing the play. 

He's a mixture of wringing and pressing.

London 1700s

In 1760, 75000 people were living in London and by 1850, the numbers crept to 1.4 MILLION. In just a 50 year gap, a massive number of people came to England so it meant cramped conditions, high mortality rates, low fertility rates aaaaand low life expectancy.

There was a big difference between high and low class status. More buildings were being built but usually, for the poor people, the houses would just collapse and cause a large number of fatalities. No training was given to carpenters and builders so they didn't really know what they were doing.

London was jail capital of Europe in 18th century; it was the place with the most crime and convicts. No established police force operated in London except for a self created group called the Bow Street Runners in 1949,

 Thief Takers were bounty hunters employed by people who sought safety from thieves, so they would employ and pay the Thief Takers themselves.. 

Australia 1700s

The convicts would have sailed on a cramp boat in sickening conditions for 8 months, travelling from the UK to Australia. It was wondered whether Australia became the new America back then. 

Transportation would have started in 1650 when felons were sent to America to work on plantations. 125 years later, 50,000 women and children were shipped off to 13 colonies. The American War of Independace ended this when they decided that they no longer wanted our criminals because it contradicted with their want for new land.

Even now, but especially in the times this play was written, no type of transportation was designed to specifically carry convicts. The quarters were extremely cramped for the marines and the crew, let alone for the shamed convicts. 4 convicts were squashed in a space seven feet by six feet and there was very little head space.

The convicts had to bend at the back, the men were doubled over whilst the woman had to stoop. They remained like this for the full 8 months and had to the their toilet duties in the exact same spot they had to stand, sleep and eat. These conditions are hard for me to even imagine, let alone having to deal with it. This also makes me sad as, especially in the 19th century, some of the crimes labelled as ‘horrific’ back then really aren’t worth the punishments they received, in my opinion of course.

On Sunday May 17th, 1787, a fleet of ships left Portsmouth Harbour with 16000 miles and 8 months of open sea ahead of them.

There were 1500 people on board, 746 of them the convicts. By the time they docked up in Australia, 48 had already died on the boat because of how insane the conditions were.

Even for the marines and crew, it was tough dealing with the boat for 8 months, which made them more frustrated and angry and eager to take it out on the convicts. The ship was infested with rats, lice, cockroaches and fleas. Food and water was scarce and the sea climate was hard for them to deal with.

What does my character say about myself?

My character does not mention himself at all. Instead, everything that comes out of his mouth is a snide, rude sarcastic comment aimed at somebody else, mostly aimed at Ralph Clark. I think, looking into it deeply, this might show how insecure he is with himself; he wants to pass all attention on to someone else and point out all of their flaws rather than focusing on his own. Alternatively, I think it's more to do with the fact he is just a careless character: he doesn't care what others think about him and he doesn't care whether the things he says affects anyone else. I believe he gets a bit carried away with himself and his words, as he has to be reminded by a guard much higher than him in ranks to be quiet with his unhelpful comments.  

What does my character say about others?

On page 19, my character implies that Ralph Clark - the man he has undeniable but unexplainable hate for - as a man who "suffers from greed and ambition." He's doesn't directly say it but makes it obvious by claiming 'unlike some' and staring at Ralph accusingly.

Further down on page 19, my character has another dig at Ralph by mocking his ideas of changing the nature of society if he was able to put the play on within the prison. He claims: "Second Lieutenant Clark Change Society!" in disbelief, as if the thought is a joke.

On page 20, my character further mocks Ralph but this time is shunned by the Captain. Collins mentions how there is a character in the play who was called Sergeant Kite: "The devious ways he used to serve his Captain..." Faddy announces that this would be a fitting part for Ralph, implying that Ralph and that character are similar in their ways.

Faddy also claims on page 24 that he does not trust Ralph Clark, which figures after all of the comments he repeatedly dropped regarding him just minutes earlier.

What do other people say about me?

I am mostly ignored in my scene and no one directly replies to my sarcastic comments except to tell me to be quiet. After one of my cheeky comments, Captain Collins orders me: "if you can't contribute anything useful to the discussion, keep quiet." Having been told by someone so much higher than me in terms of ranks, I do keep my comments to myself... for a couple of minutes at least. No one else says anything about me which I think highlights my irrelevance within the prison.

Assistant Director!

I have had the honour of becoming an assistant director for Our Country's Good! I am pleased as this has come in the point of the play where I am beginning to become immersed in Wertenbaker's work. The more I learn about the play and come to terms with the main subjects and themes, the more I can see what a good play it's going to be.

I am looking forward to having a significant purpose in this play now. I don't intend on taking full control and acting as if my opinion out weighs everything else - obviously - but I am interested in keep fully engaged in every rehearsal from now on, taking notes for our director, writing down my own possible ideas, and helping the actors when they are not needed on stage.

Boat improv

This was fun. I finished the exercise with carpet burn and missing hair but that was so fun and beneficial.

Sarah created a small box on the carpet which represented the cramp conditions of the boat and placed students inside as the convicts and others surrounding as the guards.

We were told to imagine the smell and how uncomfortable we'd feel and how much we wanted to talk, but 5 minutes into the exercise I did genuinely FEEL these feelings. I had Sophie sitting basically on top of me and I felt so cramped and my legs were hanging out of the box which I appreciated but the guards decided this wasn't allowed and made me squash up even more.

Inside the box - on the boat - I wasn't allowed to look up, look left, look right, cough, sneeze, even move my body just a FRACTION, if I did the guards would hit me or taunt me with nasty words, the same with everybody. This put into perspective for me how I and the other students had to do this for 30 minutes, yet realistically the real convicts had to experience this for 8 months. 

About 15 minutes into the exercise I was taken out by one of the guards, I can't remember exactly why, probably for something stupid, but I found I appreciated the simple movement! Although I knew i was on my way out to get 'beaten' the feeling of stretching my back and moving my legs was beautiful. I love the commitment we all had to our characters and our improvisation. The guard Layla literally dragged me outside and at one point I lost my balance and fell to the floor which was actually quite funny, but no one even cracked a smile - not even myself - because we were so into the exercise.

This improv was very beneficial for each character. Although in the improv I played a convict and I've been cast as a guard, I feel I got a good understanding of how the convicts would feel and also got a good further understanding of the play. 

I've been very judgemental and skeptical with the play but I think this is all due to a lack of understanding of it. The more independent research I do and the more exercises and tasks we're given allows me to grasp the idea of it further, and I'm getting a more appreciative and positive vibe towards the play and I'm beginning to enjoy it.

Who am I:

 Second Lieutenant William Faddy.  Because I am a ‘second’ lieutenant, that makes me the lowest rank within the marines on the ship, along with Ralph Clarke, who I have an intense dislike for. I’m very insistent on the things I want in life, and if I don’t like someone I make it apparent. I think I often forget I am of a lower rank as my opinions are always made clear regardless of the recipient. I liked to run my mouth until I get a reminder I need to be quiet, like when the Captain orders me to be quiet: “If you can’t contribute anything useful to the discussion, keep quiet!” Once I get that reminder I’m quiet again… even though I’m right. Especially when it comes to Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark.

Where am I:

It’s late at night and I’m drinking with my fellow marines in the office. We’re all very rowdy and high on the alcohol and authority, all talking over each other in a bid to get our point across but still having a laugh anyway. I’m eager to get my own opinion across although it’s not favoured by the others and as a lower rank marine, I am aware I shouldn’t be so flamboyant in my actions.

What do I want:

I want to put a stop to Ralph Clark’s plans of putting on a play. I have an unexplainable dislike for the man so, without even taking it into consideration when the discussion arises regarding his play, I immediately shut it down. I don’t want him to do anything that might create a positive atmosphere on the ship nor do I really believe he could actually achieve this.  Every comment is a sarcastic snide or an insult directed at Ralph and the other guards pick up on this, often feeling the need to quieten me as I try and quieten Ralph.

Me and my crew

What is this play?

Playwright: Timberlake Wertenbaker

Written: 1988

Setting: Australia

Our Country's Good is the story of convicts and Royal Marines sent to Australia in the late 1780s as part of the first penal colony there. It follows Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark's attempts to put on a production of George Farquhar's restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer with a cast of male and female convicts. The play shows the class system in the convict camp and discusses themes such as sexuality, punishment, the Georgian judicial system, and the idea that that it is possible for ‘theatre to be a humanising force'. I like this idea as it shows attempt with some of the guards to find different ways to teach the convicts, not just beating them with a whip and hoping for the best.

Initial reactions

My initial reaction to the play Our Country's Good prior to reading it, was that I thought it seemed boring and very intellectual with it's themes and subjects of law and society and I find plays like those hard to engage with. After reading the play, I still think this although the elements of comedy within it are actually quite funny so I think it's a good balance.

I like how there is an evident parting between the convicts and the guards in terms of their history and their way of life but at some points their paths cross and their emotions get caught up; Ketch finds it hard to instigate the hanging of Liz although his job is to punish criminals for their wrong doings.

My favourite character is probably Mary. Her past and her innocence is enough to like her and sympathise with her as an audience member. She wears her heart on her sleeve and she's not loud and mouthy like the other women in the prison. Dabby is a favoured character of mine too, I sort of see myself within her. 

I think this play has potential and although my part isn't relevant it will be interesting to watch the process of Sarah Niven's Our Country's Good.