Thursday 15th January 2015 - Our Country's Good Research

Thursday 15th January 2015
Our Country's Good Research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Country's_Good

Our country's good is a play first premiered at The Royal Court Theatre in 1988, and is written by Timberlake Wertenbaker. It focuses on criminals that were sent to Australia in 1700s as an alternative to being hung, the criminals were crammed onto large ships and sailed across to Australia from England. They had strict routines and were punished severely by the captians on the ship for small and petty crimes, many died from physical punishments such as flogging and disease as the conditions on the boat were poor. Once they had arrived to Australia they were forced to build houses and hospitals etc for the new British colony. 

IMDb:Timberlake Wertenbaker Biography http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0921588/bio  (15th January 2015)

The governor decided to put on a play in which the convicts would act in, this an attempt to humanise the convicts. The play is called "The Recruiting Officer" and is a comedy, this is decided by the governor and the other captains. "Our Country's Good" is based on a true story of criminals that were transported to Australia and rehearsed a play. 

Prime Minister William Pitt
https://thecuriousastronomer.wordpress.com/tag/william-pitt-the-younger/

The Industrial Revolution - Before the industrial revolution people lived in small rural areas, their lives revolved around farming and manual labour. Working class peoples lives were difficult and malnourishment and disease were common among them. People produced their own food and clothing, tools and furniture, this was done by hand in their own homes. However the introduction of coal and iron started the industrial revolution, this made the rich people richer and the poor people poorer. This is because the rich people owned the factories and the poor people had no choice but to move to the industrial towns and cities and work in the factories. The workforce were give a low wage and had to work long hours to be able to earn enough money to live.

The industrial revolution http://industrialrevolution.sea.ca/causes.html (15th January 2015)

After the industrial revolution more people were committing crimes such as theft as they didn't have enough money to pay for food etc. As well as this more women were becoming prostitutes so that they could get money too. This meant that more people were sentenced to death and after the American revolution, America no longer accepted British criminals where they were previously sent, the government needed somewhere else to send them.

King George 3rd
http://watchesseven.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/arnold-son-te8-metiers-dart-ii.html

The British discovery of Australia mean that they wanted to start a new colony there, and therefore they began to send convicts to Australia rather than America. The convicts were forced to build houses and hospitals for the new colony that Britain forming and were only given a small amount of rations. It was common for some of the convicts to have sex with the guards to get special treatments such as more food.

The prime minister in 1783-1801 was William Pitt, he was the youngest prime minister at the age of 24. After the American war the national debt was £234 million, the solution to this was thought to introduce new taxes, and therefore this made the working class people even poorer as they had more to pay to the government and less money for themselves to buy essentials. George 3rd was the King of England and Ireland until his death in 1820. His reign was the longest of any other king of England before him.




Encyclopedia Britannica:William Pitt The Younger http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/462151/William-Pitt-the-Younger/5741/Pitts-first-ministry-1783-1801(15th Jnauary 2015)




1980s Government -


The 1979 election brought in Margret Thatcher, the first women prime minister, at this time the UK had mass unemployment and a class war. Margaret Thatcher and the chancellor Geoffrey Howe decided that rather cut taxes, they raised them and cut government spending. In the 1980 budget, the chancellor announced that the welfare state would also be cut, meaning that the benefits that were given tot he families of those who went out on strike were cut by £12 a week and were also made to pay tax. By 1981 unemployment rose to 3million the manufacturing sector fell by a fifth and the mining community were disappearing, During the summer of that year many riots took place as people had lost their jobs and their benefits had been cut drastically. 


This mirrored the economy in the 1700s, and therefore the amount of crime in the 1700s and therefore Timberlake Wertenbaker wrote the play to show that society had gone backward in time and the level of crime was continuing to rise.  

This was found at http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/630/economics/economy-in-1980s/ on Thursday 7th May 2015

The Recruiting Officer - This is a play written in 1706, by the Irish writer George Farquhar, it is set in the town of Shewsbury and Is in the genre of restoration comedy. It is a comedy that focuses around the social and sexual exploitations of two officers, Captain Plume and Captain Brazen that attempt to recruit soldiers. The play opened at the Drury Lane theatre in 1706 and became one of the most performed plays in the 18th century, it was later staged in New York City on December 6th 1732. This was the first play to be staged in the first penal colony of New South Wales by the convicts of the first fleet in 1789 under the governor Captain Arthur Phillip

This was found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Recruiting_Officer on 7th May 2015

Themes Within The Play -

• Play Within A Play - The basis of this play is the idea of putting on a play as an idea to try and give the convicts something to believe in, it attempts to humanise them. Our Country's Good has scenes of The Recruiting Officer within it. This also has a sub-theme of 1700s acting styles, this gives the audience an idea of how acting has developed over the last few centuries and how it is different now. 
• Status And Hierarchy - There is a real sense of status and hierarchy, some of the officers take advantage of the convicts as they think they are of a lower status than them. My character contrasts this as he believes the convicts can be reformed and therefore they are equal to all of the officers as he wants to humanise them.
• Humanity - This is the idea of the self fulfilling prophecy, for example if a person is treated like an animal then the begin to believe that they are an animal and adapt their behaviour to be like that. The governor believes that humanity is something that needs to be restored to the convicts. 
• Punishment - The show opens with one of the convicts being punished by being flogged, and they are all on the ship to be sent to Australia is a punishment instead of being hung. The storyline is based around the convicts trying not to be punished either by being flogged, imprisoned or be hung.