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Another Country
Another Country (Plays)
95 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 17, 2014
God, this play... The movie adaptation came out when I did--1985. I had just come out to myself while studying abroad in France, and Another Country showed up at the foreign language cinema. I cannot remember how many times I went to see it while it played there. Many, certainly.
It is set in an English public school, so very similar to the boarding school that I attended in the American South. The writing and characters are wonderful. The movie gave me such peace and healed much of my heart at a time when I was young, afraid, and quite vulnerable. I'll always be thankful to Julian Mitchell for writing it. Needless to say, I highly recommend it.
It is set in an English public school, so very similar to the boarding school that I attended in the American South. The writing and characters are wonderful. The movie gave me such peace and healed much of my heart at a time when I was young, afraid, and quite vulnerable. I'll always be thankful to Julian Mitchell for writing it. Needless to say, I highly recommend it.
September 14, 2023
The past is another country, Britain is another country, the arcane codes that govern the behavior of the British upper classes make them seem like citizens of another land. As a 21st-century American woman, it took me a little while to get into Another Country—all those posh boys calling one another by their surnames and talking in arch schoolboy slang. I can understand why the play was a hit in London in the early 1980s and launched the careers of several (handsome, white) British actors, but I can also understand why it has never had a major U.S. production.
You see, in order for Another Country to have the maximum impact, you need to know that the protagonist Guy Bennett—a gay student at an elite British boarding school in the early 1930s—is a lightly fictionalized version of Guy Burgess, a privileged Briton who belonged to the “Cambridge Five” spy ring and passed secrets to the USSR. When the play premiered, the ‘30s were still within living memory and the Cambridge spies had recently made headlines in 1979. But this context—this subtext—doesn’t register so viscerally for an American in 2023. I suspect that even present-day British people might need to do some background reading about 20th-century history first.
Still, if you keep the historical context in mind, this is an intriguing play, full of clever dialogue and complex motivations. I particularly liked Act Two, Scene Two—a long, beautifully structured scene that advances all of the major plot threads and deepens everyone’s characters. (It also features the play’s only adult character, a visiting writer from London who serves as a foil for the boys.) The middle of Act Two is where a lot of plays bog down, but it’s where this one soars.
Furthermore, the queer themes of Another Country were probably pretty daring for 1981. (More historical context: that was less than 15 years after Britain decriminalized homosexuality and stopped censoring theater. I do note, though, that this play talks frankly about homosexuality but doesn’t include any actual scenes of gay romance. Bennett says that he is having an affair with a boy named Harcourt, but Harcourt never appears onstage.) In the world of the play, it’s accepted that boys will fool around with each other at school; however, they must never be caught in the act, never discuss it publicly, and always assume that it’s a phase they’ll grow out of rather than a lifetime sexual orientation. It’s rank hypocrisy, in other words, and the play proposes that this made Guy Bennett/Burgess so disgusted that he became someone who could betray his country.
Another character who can’t deal with upper-crust hypocrisy is Tommy Judd, who stays up late reading Das Kapital and praises Russia at every opportunity. You might think, at first, that he’s the boy who will become a Soviet spy—but Julian Mitchell makes clear why he won’t and why Bennett will instead. People like Judd are too blunt and uncompromising to be spies; they would quickly give themselves away, unable to handle so much duplicity and secrecy. (Judd can’t even read Marx in bed without his flashlight getting confiscated—twelve times!) But Bennett knows how to put on a persona and conceal his true feelings and play the long game. By the end of the play, he is filled with just as much rage as Judd, but he can hide it better.
The friendship between these outsiders, Judd and Bennett, is the heart of the play, and kudos to Mitchell for writing a deep but totally platonic friendship between a straight boy and a gay boy. That still feels rare and refreshing in 2023, even if the play’s unwillingness to show us Bennett’s romance with Harcourt now seems old-fashioned and prudish. Thinking about their friendship, I’m reminded of this famous quote from E.M. Forster (who, to tie it all together, was a gay British man who went to Cambridge and actually knew Guy Burgess): “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”
You see, in order for Another Country to have the maximum impact, you need to know that the protagonist Guy Bennett—a gay student at an elite British boarding school in the early 1930s—is a lightly fictionalized version of Guy Burgess, a privileged Briton who belonged to the “Cambridge Five” spy ring and passed secrets to the USSR. When the play premiered, the ‘30s were still within living memory and the Cambridge spies had recently made headlines in 1979. But this context—this subtext—doesn’t register so viscerally for an American in 2023. I suspect that even present-day British people might need to do some background reading about 20th-century history first.
Still, if you keep the historical context in mind, this is an intriguing play, full of clever dialogue and complex motivations. I particularly liked Act Two, Scene Two—a long, beautifully structured scene that advances all of the major plot threads and deepens everyone’s characters. (It also features the play’s only adult character, a visiting writer from London who serves as a foil for the boys.) The middle of Act Two is where a lot of plays bog down, but it’s where this one soars.
Furthermore, the queer themes of Another Country were probably pretty daring for 1981. (More historical context: that was less than 15 years after Britain decriminalized homosexuality and stopped censoring theater. I do note, though, that this play talks frankly about homosexuality but doesn’t include any actual scenes of gay romance. Bennett says that he is having an affair with a boy named Harcourt, but Harcourt never appears onstage.) In the world of the play, it’s accepted that boys will fool around with each other at school; however, they must never be caught in the act, never discuss it publicly, and always assume that it’s a phase they’ll grow out of rather than a lifetime sexual orientation. It’s rank hypocrisy, in other words, and the play proposes that this made Guy Bennett/Burgess so disgusted that he became someone who could betray his country.
Another character who can’t deal with upper-crust hypocrisy is Tommy Judd, who stays up late reading Das Kapital and praises Russia at every opportunity. You might think, at first, that he’s the boy who will become a Soviet spy—but Julian Mitchell makes clear why he won’t and why Bennett will instead. People like Judd are too blunt and uncompromising to be spies; they would quickly give themselves away, unable to handle so much duplicity and secrecy. (Judd can’t even read Marx in bed without his flashlight getting confiscated—twelve times!) But Bennett knows how to put on a persona and conceal his true feelings and play the long game. By the end of the play, he is filled with just as much rage as Judd, but he can hide it better.
The friendship between these outsiders, Judd and Bennett, is the heart of the play, and kudos to Mitchell for writing a deep but totally platonic friendship between a straight boy and a gay boy. That still feels rare and refreshing in 2023, even if the play’s unwillingness to show us Bennett’s romance with Harcourt now seems old-fashioned and prudish. Thinking about their friendship, I’m reminded of this famous quote from E.M. Forster (who, to tie it all together, was a gay British man who went to Cambridge and actually knew Guy Burgess): “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”
August 7, 2023
One of my favourite movies - not really sure why. I think it's because the love between Guy and James is handled so well that it doesn't matter what your sexual preference is: you can appreciate the emotion whether you are gay or not. I'm not, as it happens, but the scenes they share at night in the moored boats - just being together - have stayed with me ever since I first saw the film.
This is the original play, so there are some differences here, some scenes are expanded to fill a movie timeframe and some characters do not appear in the movie at all (the visiting lecturer, for instance).
I really enjoyed it whilst at the same time being slightly outraged by the fact that the ruling classes in the UK really do behave like this.
Back to the beginning, what is the attraction here for me? I think I must see myself as being somewhere between Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd. That would explain it, ha ha.
This is the original play, so there are some differences here, some scenes are expanded to fill a movie timeframe and some characters do not appear in the movie at all (the visiting lecturer, for instance).
I really enjoyed it whilst at the same time being slightly outraged by the fact that the ruling classes in the UK really do behave like this.
Back to the beginning, what is the attraction here for me? I think I must see myself as being somewhere between Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd. That would explain it, ha ha.
March 6, 2014
Another Country by Julian Mitchell
R4x
spring 2013
pub 1982
school
bio
play
glbt
suicide
filthy lucre
4 Extra Debut. Spies in the making - the schooldays of young Guy Bennett could well have a major impact on his adulthood. With Tom Hiddleston.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
R4x
spring 2013
pub 1982
school
bio
play
glbt
suicide
filthy lucre
4 Extra Debut. Spies in the making - the schooldays of young Guy Bennett could well have a major impact on his adulthood. With Tom Hiddleston.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
September 2, 2024
“There’s a little hollow at the base of this throat which makes me want to pour honey all over him and lick it off again.”
Best line ❤️❤️❤️
Best line ❤️❤️❤️
January 20, 2011
Really interesting, like a glimpse into a secret world. However fact based this is, its a history that many would oppose and which is almost unimaginable outside.
I started watching the movie after I had finished the play, and was disappointed by it's description on netflix. It was described as a play about a homosexual student at a school, and that his love-interest throws him out of the running for being one of the 22, one of the special prefects of the houses of that school... The movie did tie in the inspiration for the play much better, and had a almost comedically aged Rupert Everett playing Guy Burgess in the 80s, when the play was produced.
The play is more about communism and portrays a defining moment in someone's life.
I felt that Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd, the real main characters (no offense to James Harcourt) were well fleshed out, and didn't miss anything on the track of Bennett's 'conversion' to communism/marxism. Their friendship was really well portrayed.
Eliminated was the character of Cunningham whom I'm not sure what did in this play anyway. It was amazingly done, the slightest hint that Cunningham was also homosexual, and how he and Bennett communicated about this without saying anything.
God, I love the main characters of Judd and Bennett. After this I think I'll be interested in a biography about Burgess... If there is one. A traitor to the crown, and if this play can be based on fact, a pretty interesting person.
I started watching the movie after I had finished the play, and was disappointed by it's description on netflix. It was described as a play about a homosexual student at a school, and that his love-interest throws him out of the running for being one of the 22, one of the special prefects of the houses of that school... The movie did tie in the inspiration for the play much better, and had a almost comedically aged Rupert Everett playing Guy Burgess in the 80s, when the play was produced.
The play is more about communism and portrays a defining moment in someone's life.
I felt that Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd, the real main characters (no offense to James Harcourt) were well fleshed out, and didn't miss anything on the track of Bennett's 'conversion' to communism/marxism. Their friendship was really well portrayed.
Eliminated was the character of Cunningham whom I'm not sure what did in this play anyway. It was amazingly done, the slightest hint that Cunningham was also homosexual, and how he and Bennett communicated about this without saying anything.
God, I love the main characters of Judd and Bennett. After this I think I'll be interested in a biography about Burgess... If there is one. A traitor to the crown, and if this play can be based on fact, a pretty interesting person.
November 19, 2025
Another Country by Julian Mitchell
8.8 out of 10
This is a very interesting, rewarding motion picture that has alas so much fallen into obscurity that the chances of you finding iron Netflix or indeed anywhere seem to be next to zero.
Nonetheless, it was nominated for may very well be the most important cinematic trophy:
The Palme d'Or...not the Oscar for Best Film
In addition, it was also nominated for three BAFTAs, including for Rupert Everett as Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film and Best Screenplay- Adapted.
Another Country offers cinephiles the occasion to see the aforementioned Rupert Everett and equally young Colin Firth in a tale of seduction, intrigue, crime and punishment, albeit not on the scale of the Dostoyevsky saga and without any dead bodies.
Rupert Everett has the role of Guy Bennett, who would later become infamous as Guy Burgess, one of the Cambridge Spies who would betray their land and work for...
Another Country.
Guy is a homosexual, at a time when that was illegal and men in that situation were subject to punishment in many forms, from exclusion from school, to prison sentences.
Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing are among the best known figures that have suffered abominable consequences, the latter seems to have killed himself, after being castrated for being gay.
For a while, the astute Guy Bennett plays a clever game and escapes punishment.
He threatens that he would reveal his sex partners to the higher officials if he is beaten.
His friend is Tommy Judd aka Colin Firth, a communist who is enchanted by the Marxist theories alas.
As one who has had to live in a former communist country, where we will still suffer the consequences for decades to come, I have no patience for and rather loath communists.
There is however an interesting dialogue between Guy and Tommy on the attitude of the communist comrades and homosexuality...
You praise equality...so you would not discriminate is what Guy more or less expects from the commies...
Probably, this is one major reason why he went on to live I the gorgeous Soviet Union...
When asked if he would like to return, he says he would not.
On the question of some regret, something he misses, the old man that had betrayed Britain for Another Country says:
Cricket...I miss cricket.
As for his young days, it is to be appreciated that once he falls in love with James Harcourt, gay Guy prefers to suffer indemnity, abuse and punishment rather than have the man he loves suffer consequences.
Another Country is a very good, if forgotten motion picture.
8.8 out of 10
This is a very interesting, rewarding motion picture that has alas so much fallen into obscurity that the chances of you finding iron Netflix or indeed anywhere seem to be next to zero.
Nonetheless, it was nominated for may very well be the most important cinematic trophy:
The Palme d'Or...not the Oscar for Best Film
In addition, it was also nominated for three BAFTAs, including for Rupert Everett as Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film and Best Screenplay- Adapted.
Another Country offers cinephiles the occasion to see the aforementioned Rupert Everett and equally young Colin Firth in a tale of seduction, intrigue, crime and punishment, albeit not on the scale of the Dostoyevsky saga and without any dead bodies.
Rupert Everett has the role of Guy Bennett, who would later become infamous as Guy Burgess, one of the Cambridge Spies who would betray their land and work for...
Another Country.
Guy is a homosexual, at a time when that was illegal and men in that situation were subject to punishment in many forms, from exclusion from school, to prison sentences.
Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing are among the best known figures that have suffered abominable consequences, the latter seems to have killed himself, after being castrated for being gay.
For a while, the astute Guy Bennett plays a clever game and escapes punishment.
He threatens that he would reveal his sex partners to the higher officials if he is beaten.
His friend is Tommy Judd aka Colin Firth, a communist who is enchanted by the Marxist theories alas.
As one who has had to live in a former communist country, where we will still suffer the consequences for decades to come, I have no patience for and rather loath communists.
There is however an interesting dialogue between Guy and Tommy on the attitude of the communist comrades and homosexuality...
You praise equality...so you would not discriminate is what Guy more or less expects from the commies...
Probably, this is one major reason why he went on to live I the gorgeous Soviet Union...
When asked if he would like to return, he says he would not.
On the question of some regret, something he misses, the old man that had betrayed Britain for Another Country says:
Cricket...I miss cricket.
As for his young days, it is to be appreciated that once he falls in love with James Harcourt, gay Guy prefers to suffer indemnity, abuse and punishment rather than have the man he loves suffer consequences.
Another Country is a very good, if forgotten motion picture.
December 11, 2013
This play is enthralling. I've been re-reading it and listening to the radio play for months now. Premise seems simple enough. School boys. Prefects. Rules and appearances. Underneath that: power struggle, politics, Romanticism vs Communism, homosexuality, Das Kapital, suicide, the old vs the new, intuition and reason, and some very dry humor. Toss in some cricket, cucumber sandwiches, and white feathers in the war. Two friends. One is a commie. One is a homosexual. We see the beginnings of Guy Burgess' life as one of England's most famous spies. None of this will make sense until you read it. Highly recommended.
May 11, 2020
"And there's another country, I've heard of long ago"
BRO. i'll admit it's hard to just read the play and it would be better to watch on the stage but i mean.... SEVERAL points were made. all issues mentioned are still relevant. the scenes that were added in the movie did make it a more cohesive piece but the play itself is still wonderful. so much emotion in the dialogue ESPECIALLY in the lines "are u a communist bcuz u read karl marx? no! u read karl marx because u know that u are a communist!" and "all your problems! solved for life! no commies and no queers!"
i love tommy judd so much bruh......
BRO. i'll admit it's hard to just read the play and it would be better to watch on the stage but i mean.... SEVERAL points were made. all issues mentioned are still relevant. the scenes that were added in the movie did make it a more cohesive piece but the play itself is still wonderful. so much emotion in the dialogue ESPECIALLY in the lines "are u a communist bcuz u read karl marx? no! u read karl marx because u know that u are a communist!" and "all your problems! solved for life! no commies and no queers!"
i love tommy judd so much bruh......
March 2, 2016
Fantastic, witty, loved the two main characters Tommy Judd and Guy Bennett. So many truths spoken about politics, the British class system, Marxism and homosexuality that I related to these two characters more than I thought I would. Filled with tender, quiet moments that were quite clever and humorous as well. Quick enough to read in one sitting and definitely one I will be revisiting after I view the film again.
Read
December 7, 20244.5
Co mogę powiedzieć? Uwielbiam film (sztuka wcale się od niego tak nie różni), pomimo tego że tekst napisano w latach 80 to nadal bawi (tylko miłość Judd'a do Związku Radzieckiego się źle zestarzała).
(Żyją we mnie dwa wilki; Guy Bennett i Tommy Judd)
Co mogę powiedzieć? Uwielbiam film (sztuka wcale się od niego tak nie różni), pomimo tego że tekst napisano w latach 80 to nadal bawi (tylko miłość Judd'a do Związku Radzieckiego się źle zestarzała).
(Żyją we mnie dwa wilki; Guy Bennett i Tommy Judd)
April 12, 2013
Awesome play - I wrote my dissertation about it!
August 10, 2024
A provocative and subversive drama that swipes away a sly veil off the visage of “another country,” a secret world of power struggles, social disparities, political schisms, cerebral manipulation, systematic oppression, self-preservation, sadism, homosexuality, prejudices, duplicity, suicide, and rebellion with strong undercurrents of Marxism. Even more riveting, the story is loosely based on a real-life double agent who sought to undermine a society he believed was wholly unjust and perpetrated its injustices throughout the world like a malignant cancer. It dares to ask the questions: Who are you and what do you stand for? Another country is a microcosm of the state of the world; another country is the real world. Quite devastating. Quite remarkable.
December 28, 2020
tommy judd and guy bennett are my best friends
August 17, 2021
I really enjoyed this throughout. The character work was exceptionally well done, though I felt like the end was a liiiiittle heavy handed as a reference to Bennett's real life inspiration.
November 28, 2021
Best play ever written. I've read it quite a few times - Bennett always speaks to me
June 5, 2022
This was enjoyable and an interesting take on boarding school life almost a hundred years ago. The politics and the dynamics between the characters were interesting.
January 16, 2023
*PLACEHOLDER PER L'EDIZIONE ITALIANA*
April 25, 2023
private boarding school shenanigans that is somewhat political it was fun
December 17, 2025
I'm gay enough to understand much of this, but not British enough to understand the rest. What I understood, I really enjoyed. Rounding up slightly because I'm sure it works even better on the stage.
March 13, 2023
At 2 am:
Going to sleep❌
Reading in one sitting a play about a gay Guy and a communist in a boarding school from the 1930s✅
I love this play sm (4.7⭐️)
Going to sleep❌
Reading in one sitting a play about a gay Guy and a communist in a boarding school from the 1930s✅
I love this play sm (4.7⭐️)
August 18, 2025
Witty, heartbreaking, and unapologetically political. This play captures the cost of living in a society built on privilege and hypocrisy.
October 5, 2023
I saw the film version of Another Country before reading the original stage play, and I'm glad I sought out the latter. The film is great, but for an American like me, some of the very British dialogue is hard to follow in real time, and working from the written page allows me to pause and look up the charming word choices that abound throughout the text.
As an examination of the ridiculousness of rigid Britannian class structures, and their oppressive impacts on any real expression of human nature, Another Country is wonderfully executed. Although most of the characters have tried to reconcile themselves to a "life of ladders", always plotting their move to the next rung, chief protagonists Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd have (for separate reasons) begun to understand that there may be a way out of the pre-programmed destinies that they were born to. That yearning to trade rigid custom for real life is universal, and Another Country explores that terrain brilliantly.
As an examination of the ridiculousness of rigid Britannian class structures, and their oppressive impacts on any real expression of human nature, Another Country is wonderfully executed. Although most of the characters have tried to reconcile themselves to a "life of ladders", always plotting their move to the next rung, chief protagonists Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd have (for separate reasons) begun to understand that there may be a way out of the pre-programmed destinies that they were born to. That yearning to trade rigid custom for real life is universal, and Another Country explores that terrain brilliantly.
October 17, 2025
This is a suspenseful drama about love, society, politics and the social order in an elite British boarding school. Loosely based on the lives of Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean the play depicts the interaction of Judd, a young Marxist boy, and Bennett, his gay friend. The prefects of the school do not tolerate the activities of Bennett. The milieu of the school and the tensions of politics, class, and sex make this an effective drama. It was subsequently adapted for the cinema with Julian Mitchell providing the screenplay.
July 15, 2024
An incredibly specific story that lives in the same realm as Maurice and Brideshead Revisited, this play is interesting both on its own merits and as an artifact of its time and place. The play grapples with themes like class inequality, homosexuality, addiction, and hypocrisy in that staid and rigorously proper of settings, the British Public School. The characters play really well off each other and the dialogue is a masterclass in comedic timing and innuendo.
October 21, 2012
I remember being very moved by the movie of this play when it came out. A play will always be slighter and shorter than a novel, but I did feel that there was room for more substance and variety than was shown. Nonetheless, it's really interesting to have this glimpse into a 1930s public school, into the backgrounds of the men who were running the country when I was growing up.
August 8, 2012
i think this may work better as an actual play/movie,but i still really liked it. Tom sounds SO young,considering this is from 2008. Anyway, it's a 3.5 verging on 4. And i kinda really want to see the movie now.
August 2, 2016
This is probably way more fun to see live than it is to read, so I credit most of my issues with it to that. My main problem with it, from a reading perspective, is the lack of clarity in the narrative. But aside of that, a beautifully written play that I really enjoyed reading.
January 5, 2016
Would have been cool to see Rupert Everett and Kenneth Branaugh in this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews