Another Country is a play by Julian Mitchell loosely based upon the life of the spy Guy Burgess, called Guy Bennett in the play, examining the effect that his homosexuality and his exposure to Marxism have on him and the hypocrisy and snobbery of the British public school system.

The original 1981 London production starred Colin Firth as Guy, James Newall as Tommy, Kenneth Branagh, and Daniel Day-Lewis. It won the Society of West End Theatre Awards honor as Play of the Year in 1982.

In 1984, the play was adapted into a movie directed by Marek Kanievska and starring Rupert Everett as Guy along with Firth as Judd. Also starring are Michael Jenn (Barclay), Robert Addie (Delahay), Rupert Wainwright (Donald Devenish), Tristan Oliver (Fowler), Cary Elwes (James Harcourt), and Anna Massey (Imogen Bennett). Also present in three scenes as an extra without any dialogue is Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's younger brother.

The setting is an 1930s Eton_esque public school, where Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd are friends because they are both outsiders in their own ways. Bennett is openly homosexual, while Judd is a Marxist. Judd constantly tries to convert Bennett to communism, while Bennett tries to talk Judd into having sex with him.

One day a homosexual scandal involving Martineau (Philip Dupuy) and a boy from another school gives house captain Fowler a welcome reason to scheme against Bennett to keep him from becoming a Lord, one of the elite pupils of the school. Fortunately for Fowler, he is able to intercept a love letter from Bennett to James Harcourt. Bennett agrees to be punished so as not to compromise Harcourt. (On an earlier occasion he had simply blackmailed the other Lords for their own "experiences" with him.)

Meanwhile, Judd is reluctant to become a Lord himself, since he feels that he cannot endorse a "system of oppression" like this. He is therefore relieved when Devenish can be persuaded of staying for another year and becoming a Lord himself.

Bennett comes to realize that the British class system strongly relies on outward appearance and that to be openly homosexual is a severe hindrance to a career as a diplomat. The epilogue of the movie states that he emigrated to Russia later in his life, after having been a spy for the Soviet Union.

External links

• Another Country (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086904/) at the Internet Movie Database