Our Country’s Good: Act One, Scene Six Summary & Analysis

While drinking one night, Governor Phillip and a number of his fellow guards debate the pros and cons of staging a play. Major Ross is strongly against the idea, thinking that everyone has better things to focus on, though Judge Collins points out that the play won’t keep the much-anticipated supply ship from finally arriving to restock the colony’s food stores (though nor will it speed the ship along). Still, Ross doesn’t like the idea that the play will include female convicts, who he thinks are “filthy, thieving, lying whores.” Phillip assures him that he won’t be forced to attend the play if he feels so strongly about it, but this does little to calm Ross, who thinks the guards have a duty to “make sure [the convicts] get punished.” Although Phillip agrees with this, he adds that it’s already punishment enough that the prisoners have been exiled.

Phillip also suggests that the prisoners can “be reformed” while enduring their punishment in the penal colony. “We are talking about criminals, often hardened criminals,” Tench responds. “They have a habit of vice and crime. Habits are difficult to break. And it can be more than habit, an innate tendency.” Going on, he says that vice is “in their nature,” but Phillip disagrees. Turning to Reverend Johnson, the Governor asks if he believes the convicts can be “redeemed,” and Johnson says that he does, though he’ll only support the play if it touts positive religious morals. Tench states that “a crime is a crime” and that if someone commits a crime, he or she is a criminal. “It’s like the savages here,” he says. “A savage is a savage because he behaves in a savage manner.”

Ralph argues that the play could alter the way the colony functions (even in just a small way), but Tench makes fun of him for thinking that letting the convicts make “fools of themselves” will have a positive impact. As the group continues to argue, Phillip points out that many of the convicts will soon be finished with their sentences and that it would be worthwhile to expose them to culture before they “help create a new society” in Australia. “The theatre is an expression of civilisation,” he says. He also notes that the actors would be using “refined” language and engaging with ideas they’re not accustomed to expressing. “It will remind them that there is more to life than crime [and] punishment,” he says. He says the play will also bring everyone—guards and prisoners included—together, even if only for a few hours.

Agreeing with Phillip and trying to convince his peers, Ralph says he has already noted a “change” in some of the female prisoners during the auditions. Although many of these women often act like “animals,” he says that several of them have “seemed to acquire a dignity” and lost “some of their corruption.” In particular, he sings Mary’s praises, saying that she was a fantastic reader and hoping aloud that the play will “keep her from selling herself to the first marine who offers her bread.”

One of the other officers mumbles that Mary will probably “sell herself” to Ralph instead of the “first marine who offers her bread,” since he’s taken such an interest in her. Brushing this off, Ralph says he thinks the other convicts will also benefit from the play, adding that it will give the officers a chance to pretend they’re at the theater back in London. Eventually, Judge Collins polls the group, taking a vote regarding who wants to do the play and who’s against the idea. Tench and Ross are the most outspoken critics of the idea, but they’re outnumbered. Furious, Ross erupts, saying that “theatre leads to threatening theory” and that he plans to tell Phillip’s boss about what’s going on. When he storms away, Phillip turns to the rest of the men and says, “The last word will be the play, gentlemen.”