A Comparison of The Tempest and Our Country's Good: Beyond Dialogue and Conventional Stage Action Jenny Podic 12th Grade

In Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, techniques including scene titles, a play within a play, self-referencing and music are utilised in order to effectively convey messages that would not be as profound using only ‘conventional’ practices. As Our Country’s Good is often categorised as epic theatre, the use of scene titles and the performing of a play, in this case The Recruiting Officer, as a significant aspect of the plot are both arguably the most powerful methods in which to remind the audience of their setting and thus encourage them to think not only of the play’s action, but rather the moral message it attempts to communicate. On the contrary, The Tempest may be seen as a ‘play about a play’; the portrayal of this is arguably only possible via self-referencing. Furthermore, both playwrights enhance the illustration of some other core themes using such techniques, such as the power of drama in Our Country’s Good and that of conflict and harmony in The Tempest.

In various productions of Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, scene titles have been displayed before each commences. Not only do these, such as ‘Punishment’ for Act One Scene Three act as an introduction to the upcoming events, but...