The Healing Power of Theatre in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good

Abstract

Recently, theatre is not only used to entertain and enlighten people but also to heal. The old shaman role finds its way in the theatre of the world today. Theatre in prison is highly manipulated by playwrights to intervene with the tools and expertise they possess. This can be clearly shown in contemporary theatre especially theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker. In Our Country’s Good, the role of the theatre is celebrated as a place where lost voices are regained and heard. For Wertenbaker, theatre has the incentive “to make one listen” (1999). Though the play is about community, or applied theatre, it is also a journey of personal discovery. The artist figures are writers and actors. Phillip, who is aware of the power of theatre, asks Ralph to write and direct parts of George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer to be acted out by convicts. Though unprofessional actors, the participants prove to be genuine. Obviously, there are some fascinating female characters in Our Country’s Good, who again find that they have acting skills. Mary Brenham, for example, who starts out as passive in the first scene, takes the main role in the play within the play. Her engagement with the theatre helps her to find her voice. Similarly, Liz Morden, an aggressive girl, finds a way to speak and communicate with other people which was impossible for her initially. For her, theatre becomes a way of expressing herself and her situation. In this paper, I am going to see how Wertenbaker used theatre as a healing power for those who are psychologically and socially isolated. Though theatre in prison is not something new, what is fascinating about Wertenbaker is the use of underrepresented female character who is marginalised to do a play by which she finds her cultural voice.