''Another Country'' is a play written by English playwright
Julian Mitchell. It premiered on 5 November 1981 at the
Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.
Theatre first came to Greenwich at the beginning of the 19th century during the famous Eastertide Greenwich Fair at which the Ric ...
, London.
The play won the
Society of West End Theatre Awards Play of the Year title for 1982. The play takes its title from a lyric in the British patriotic hymn "
I Vow to Thee, My Country
"I Vow to Thee, My Country" is a British patriotic hymn, created in 1921, when music by Gustav Holst had a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice set to it. The music originated as a wordless melody, which Holst later named "Thaxted", taken from the " ...
."
It has been described as a "hit play", and that "in the theatre business the play is a legend, having launched the careers of several pimply actors in their very first jobs, including
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...
,
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupi ...
,
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
and
Colin Firth."
Plot synopsis
''Another Country'' is loosely based on the life of the spy
Guy Burgess
Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess (16 April 1911 – 30 August 1963) was a British diplomat and Soviet agent, and a member of the Cambridge Five spy ring that operated from the mid-1930s to the early years of the Cold War era. His defection in 1951 ...
, renamed "Guy Bennett" in the play. It examines the effect the persecution of his orientation, and exposure to
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
, has on his life, and the hypocrisy and snobbery of the
English public school he attends. The setting is a 1930s public school where pupils Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd become friends because they are both outsiders. Bennett is gay, while Judd is a
Marxist. Judd was based on
John Cornford
Rupert John Cornford (27 December 1915 – 28 December 1936) was an English poet and communist. During the first year of the Spanish Civil War, he was a member of the POUM militia and later the International Brigades. He died while fighting a ...
, who died fighting in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
."
The play opens with the discovery that a pupil named Martineau has hanged himself after being caught by a teacher having sex with another boy. The first act follows the reaction of some of the students to his death as the senior boys try to keep the scandal away from both the parents and the outside world. Barclay, the Head of Gascoigne's House, moves towards a nervous breakdown, blaming himself for the boy's despair. Bennett, the only openly gay member of the school, pretends nonchalance but is deeply troubled by the suicide. His best friend Judd, the school's only Marxist, believes the death is a symptom of the school's oppressive regime. When the parents of the aristocratic Devenish threaten to remove him from the school in light of the scandal, Fowler (a prefect) attempts to crack down on the perceived perversion in his House, and to persecute Bennett in particular. The other students initially defend Bennett's provocative and incendiary behaviour (partly due to Bennett's ability to blackmail them with knowledge of their own same-sex trysts). Meanwhile, Judd is reluctant to become a member of the school's exclusive 'Twenty-Two' society (a name which references Eton's
'Pop') himself. This is because he feels that this would endorse the school's system of oppression. However, he agrees to do so – after much pressure from his peers Menzies and Bennett – in the hope of preventing the hated Fowler from becoming Head of House in the wake of the Martineau scandal. But in the end, Judd's moral sacrifice is for nothing. In the second act, Fowler intercepts a letter from Bennett to his lover Harcourt, and Bennett's supporters fade away. Bennett is beaten, Judd is humiliated, and it is Devenish who is ultimately invited to join 'Twenty-Two' in the place of Bennett, shattering Bennett's childhood dream.
In the play's closing scene, Bennett and Judd recognise that the school's illusory hold upon them has been broken and that the British class system relies strongly on outward appearances. They begin to contemplate life anew, inspired by the example of Devenish's rebellious uncle, Vaughan Cunningham (who, in a subplot, visits the school). Bennett picks up Judd's copy of ''Das Kapital'', and muses, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if all this was true?’
Productions
The original 1981
Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.
Theatre first came to Greenwich at the beginning of the 19th century during the famous Eastertide Greenwich Fair at which the Ric ...
production featured
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupi ...
as Guy Bennett and
Joshua Le Touzel as Tommy Judd. The other cast members being Devenish
Piers Flint-Shipman
Piers Frederick Alexander Flint-Shipman (23 January 1962 – 2 June 1984) was a 20th-century English actor.
Early life
He was the son of film producer Gerald Flint-Shipman, and received his formal education at Ampleforth College.
Career ...
, Menzies
David Parfitt
David Parfitt (born 8 July 1958) is an English film producer, actor, and co-founder of Trademark Films. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 71st Academy Awards for ''Shakespeare in Love'' (1998).
Early life
Parfitt was born in Sunder ...
, Fowler
Michael Parkhouse, Sanderson
Christopher Villiers
Christopher Francis Villiers (born 7 September 1960) is an English actor, screenwriter and producer.
Biography
Villiers was born in London, the son of Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Wing commander David Hugh Villiers (1921–1962) and his s ...
, Barclay
Matthew Solon, Delahay
, Wharton
Gary Carp, and Vaughan Cunningham
David Wiliam. Upon transferring to the
Queen's Theatre in the
West End in March 1982, where Kenneth Branagh took the role of Judd and after the first six months,
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
took over the role of Guy Bennett, and in 1983 the role of Guy Bennett was played by
Colin Firth.
The play won the
Society of West End Theatre Awards Play of the Year title for 1982.
The play has developed a strong connection with
Oxford Playhouse
Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum.
History
The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxfo ...
, which revived it in 2000 in a new production directed by
Stephen Henry (transferred to the
Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London.
History
It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...
, Westminster, from September 2000 until January 2001). It was revived again at
Oxford Playhouse
Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum.
History
The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxfo ...
in February 2013 by
OUDS-supported
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
student company Screw the Looking Glass.
In September 2013, a co-production of
Theatre Royal, Bath
The Theatre Royal in Bath, England, was built in 1805. A Grade II* listed building, it has been described by the Theatres Trust as "One of the most important surviving examples of Georgian theatre architecture". It has a capacity for an audien ...
and
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre is a theatre and Grade II* listed building situated in Oaklands Park in the city of Chichester, West Sussex, England. Designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, it was opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Mart ...
, directed by Jeremy Herrin, transferred to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's
Trafalgar Studios
Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its ...
in 2014. That production featured Rob Callender and Will Attenborough as Guy and Tommy, respectively.
Adaptations
In 1984, the play was adapted into a movie directed by
Marek Kanievska
Marek Kanievska (born 30 November 1952) is a British film director.
His films have won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Florence Film Festival.
His 2004 film ''A Different Loyalty'' was entered into the 26th Moscow International Film ...
and starring
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupi ...
as Guy Bennett and
Colin Firth as Tommy Judd. The film also starred Michael Jenn (Barclay),
Robert Addie
Robert Alastair Addie (10 February 1960 – 20 November 2003) was an English film and theatre actor, who came to prominence playing the role of Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the 1980s British television drama series ''Robin of Sherwood''.
Early life ...
(Delahay),
Rupert Wainwright
Rupert Wainwright is an English film and television director, with credits including ''Blank Check'' (1994), ''The Sadness of Sex'' (1995) and ''Stigmata'' (1999). He is also a music video producer and multiple award-winner.
British-born, Wain ...
(Donald Devenish), Tristan Oliver (Fowler),
Cary Elwes
Ivan Simon Cary Elwes (; born 26 October 1962) is an English actor and writer. He is known for his leading film roles as Westley in ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), Robin Hood in '' Robin Hood: Men in Tights'' (1993), and Dr. Lawrence Gordon in ...
(James Harcourt),
Piers Flint-Shipman
Piers Frederick Alexander Flint-Shipman (23 January 1962 – 2 June 1984) was a 20th-century English actor.
Early life
He was the son of film producer Gerald Flint-Shipman, and received his formal education at Ampleforth College.
Career ...
(Menzies) and
Anna Massey
Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, h ...
(Imogen Bennett).
The play was adapted for radio and broadcast on
BBC Radio 4 Extra on 26 May 2013 as part of BBC Radio 4 Extra's ''Cambridge Spies'' season, starring
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with ''Thor'' in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series ''Loki'' in 2021 ...
as Tommy Judd.
References
{{OlivierAward Play 1976–2000
Plays by Julian Mitchell
Plays based on real people
Plays set in the United Kingdom
Plays set in the 1930s
Cultural depictions of the Cambridge Five
LGBT-related plays
Laurence Olivier Award-winning plays
British plays adapted into films
ru:Другая страна (фильм)