Shoe Horn Sonata
Through the use of projected images, music and dialogue, distinctively visual texts represent challenging aspects of life effectively. This is portrayed through texts such as John Misto’s play The Shoe Horn Sonata, Kevin McDonalds docu-drama Touching the Void and Roberto Innocenti’s picture book Rose Blanche.
The shoe horn sonata by John Misto is a play that deals with the brutality of World War 2 by locking at the stories of two financial characters, Bridie and Sheila. When he wrote the play, Misto was concerned that the pain and suffering that many women endured at the hands of their Japanese captors after the fall of Singapore had been forgotten. Both army nurses and civilians were the victims of terrible mistreatment and cruelty during the war, yet their stories were not widely known, nor had successive Australian governments acknowledged them. The play serves as a tribute to those victims of the atrocities of war, and looks at the effects such horrendous experiences can have on those who experience them.
By the use of distinctively visual elements, Misto has created a compelling play. Whilst projected images of the celebrations at Martin Place are projected behind the actors, the women struggling to live at Belalau are still fighting through the war. During this scene, the women struggle to ascend up a hill thinking it will be the last moment of their lives. Dialogue used to reveal the weakness is quoted “The sick and the dying were left behind” and “the old and frail began to die”. As the lucky women succeeded to ascend the hill, an orchestra performing the beautiful piece “The Blue Danube” is set out for the prisoners. The music creates the effect of the audience realising that the women are going to survive creating and symbolising triumph and life. This image of the realisation that the women will live is seen when Joe Simpon in Touching the Void comes out of the crevasse into the world of light, although he was weak and at the brink of dying. A sense of
The shoe horn sonata by John Misto is a play that deals with the brutality of World War 2 by locking at the stories of two financial characters, Bridie and Sheila. When he wrote the play, Misto was concerned that the pain and suffering that many women endured at the hands of their Japanese captors after the fall of Singapore had been forgotten. Both army nurses and civilians were the victims of terrible mistreatment and cruelty during the war, yet their stories were not widely known, nor had successive Australian governments acknowledged them. The play serves as a tribute to those victims of the atrocities of war, and looks at the effects such horrendous experiences can have on those who experience them.
By the use of distinctively visual elements, Misto has created a compelling play. Whilst projected images of the celebrations at Martin Place are projected behind the actors, the women struggling to live at Belalau are still fighting through the war. During this scene, the women struggle to ascend up a hill thinking it will be the last moment of their lives. Dialogue used to reveal the weakness is quoted “The sick and the dying were left behind” and “the old and frail began to die”. As the lucky women succeeded to ascend the hill, an orchestra performing the beautiful piece “The Blue Danube” is set out for the prisoners. The music creates the effect of the audience realising that the women are going to survive creating and symbolising triumph and life. This image of the realisation that the women will live is seen when Joe Simpon in Touching the Void comes out of the crevasse into the world of light, although he was weak and at the brink of dying. A sense of