Lesson 4.2.2.18

4.2.2.18 Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.2.18, Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Where is Our Country's Good set?

    • A convict settlement in Van Diemen's Land
    • The penal colony at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, in the late eighteenth century
    • A prison ship anchored off the coast of Cornwall
    • A military fort in the Canadian Arctic

  2. What play do the convicts rehearse and perform in the drama?

    • George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer
    • Congreve's The Way of the World
    • Shakespeare's The Tempest
    • Sheridan's The Rivals

  3. Who is the lieutenant who initiates the staging of the play?

    • Robert Sideway
    • Harry Brewer
    • Ralph Clark
    • Arthur Phillip

  4. Which convict is a central figure in the rehearsals and has a complicated relationship with the play's ideas?

    • Dabby Bryant
    • Mary Brenham
    • Ketch Freeman
    • Liz Morden

  5. What skill does Mary Brenham gain through the production?

    • Literacy, learning to read and write
    • Carpentry for the colony's ships
    • Navigation for the voyage to Britain
    • Medicine for the sick in the hospital

  6. What is the name of the governor of the colony in the play?

    • Captain Ralph Clark
    • Captain Arthur Phillip
    • Captain Robert Sideway
    • Captain Harry Brewer

  7. What does Our Country's Good suggest about the purpose of theatre?

    • That theatre can offer dignity, imagination and a shared identity to those who have lost their freedom
    • That theatre should be used only to punish convicts
    • That theatre is only useful for entertaining the governor
    • That theatre has no role in the colony's life

  8. Which real historical event is the basis of the play's material?

    • The Irish Potato Famine
    • The defeat of the Spanish Armada
    • Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker, which records a real production of a play by convicts
    • The building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

  9. What is the effect of the convicts' rehearsal process on their relationships?

    • It makes them forget their crimes completely
    • It has no effect on the convicts' relationships
    • It creates unexpected bonds and conflicts that reflect the wider colonial society
    • It divides them entirely with no sense of community

  10. What is the relationship between the colonists and the convicts in the play?

    • A friendship based on shared trade and religion
    • An equal partnership in building the colony
    • A hierarchical system in which the colonists control the convicts' lives
    • A rivalry between two equal military units

  11. How does Wertenbaker present the idea of punishment in the colony?

    • As a system that is brutal and dehumanising, yet also a source of unexpected change
    • As a system that exists only in the colonists' imagination
    • As a system that is purely fair and rational
    • As a system that has no effect on the convicts

  12. What role does Dabby Bryant play in the story?

    • She is a convict who takes part in the production and becomes a vital part of the company
    • She is a doctor who treats the sick in the colony
    • She is the governor's wife who funds the play
    • She is a soldier who guards the convicts

  13. What does the play reveal about the relationship between art and power?

    • That art has no power to change people's lives
    • That art is only a tool for the wealthy
    • That art can challenge power while remaining subject to the same power structures
    • That art is always independent of political control

  14. Which dramatic device does Wertenbaker use to link the convicts' experience with the audience?

    • A chorus that addresses the audience directly
    • A long monologue delivered by the governor
    • A series of letters read aloud to the audience
    • The staging of a play within a play

  15. How does the play treat the theme of hope?

    • Hope emerges through the convicts' creativity, even in harsh conditions
    • Hope is confined to the governor's household
    • Hope is shown as an illusion that disappears quickly
    • Hope is presented as a purely religious experience

  16. What does the title Our Country's Good suggest?

    • The idea that the convicts are the rulers of the colony
    • The idea that the colony's prosperity and wellbeing depend on the convicts' moral transformation
    • The idea that the convicts should be sent back to Britain
    • The idea that the colony is a paradise on earth

  17. What is the significance of the convicts' choice to perform a comedy?

    • It shows that the convicts had no interest in theatre
    • It shows that the convicts were forced to act by the governor
    • It reflects their attempt to create something joyful and human in a harsh environment
    • It shows that the convicts only wanted to escape the colony

  18. Which idea does Ralph Clark's commitment to the production illustrate?

    • The belief that drama can civilise and educate people
    • The belief that punishment must be as harsh as possible
    • The belief that the colony should be abandoned
    • The belief that theatre is only for the wealthy classes

  19. What is the effect of Wertenbaker's use of multiple characters in the play?

    • It makes the play focus only on one character's inner life
    • It presents different viewpoints on the colony and its treatment of convicts
    • It makes the audience identify with the governor alone
    • It removes the political dimension of the play

  20. Which best describes the play's view of the colonial enterprise?

    • A complex mixture of brutality, idealism and the possibility of change
    • A purely comic account of a failed experiment
    • A simple story of heroic British progress
    • A romantic celebration of life in the colony

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