Our Country's Good
by Timberlake Wartenbaker
Produced by Champlain College Theatre, March 2008.
Cast
John Arscot/Harry Brewer/Capt. Campbell .... John D. Alexander*
2nd Lt. Ralph Clark .... Jason Briody
Liz Morden .... Amy Burrell-Cormier
Rev. Johnson/Meg/Aborigine .... Bridget Butler
Mary Brenham .... Alison Caton
Capt. Collins/Rober Sideway .... Colin Cramer
Capt. Watkin Tench .... Walt Levering
Duckling Smith .... Emily Lyons
Major Ross/James "Ketch" Freeman .... Patrick Pope
Gov. Arthur Phillip/John Wisehammer .... Mark Roberts
Faddy/Dabby Bryant .... Alex Sevakian
Crew
Director .... Joanne Farrell
Production Manager/Stage Manager .... S.M. Payson
Sound Design .... Tony Tambasco
Lighting Design .... John Devlin
Costume Design .... Cora Fauser
Properties Master .... Todd Haas
Dialect Coach/Graphic Design/Program .... John D. Alexander
Audio Assistant .... Evan Cope
Our Country's Good is a difficult play because even where it is triumphant, that triumph is still ambiguous. The prisoners have developed a sense of their own worth and humanity by the play's conclusion, but they remain prisoners, and the production of The Recruiting Offier that we've watched them rehearse remains unperformed in the text of the play. The complete misery of life aboard ship yields to a gleam of hope by the plays end, and finding developing a musical journey that helps tell the story that the play text suggests was my challenge.
While I considered baroque English music as the basis for my design, I actually found Tcaikovsky's fifth symphony more appropriate. The funeral procession that begins the first movement yields to a more triumphal march by the end of that movement, and continues on a triumphant journey for the rest of the symphony. The over all effect was both haunting and moving.
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Review by Elisabeth Crean for Seven Days.
Intro: This is the track that opened the show and underscored the prologue. Arscott sings a mournful sea chanty, but is cut off by the sound of the lashing. Lt. Clark counts the lashes in the darkness, Sideway's lashed and limp body is dumped on stage, and then the rest of the prisoners recount what brought them to the hold of the ship. This fades into the sound of the surf and the description of the ship by the Aborigine. It remains one of the moments I am most proud of as a sound designer.
Sound Cue Sheet for the production.