Summary Of The Play 'Cosi' By Louis Nowra

Lucy says to Lewis, “working with these people has changed you”. Has Lewis really changed at the end of the play?

‘Cosi’, written by Louis Nowra, is an intriguing (this is not a review Matt, so don’t use these descriptions) play that explores the minds of patients in the mental asylum and how they progress over time whilst being in the real world. (arent’ they removed from the real world whilst trapped in the confinements of the asylum?) However it is not a patient that changes the most during the rehearsing and performing of ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ but it is the everyday society member Lewis whose experiences with the patients brings him out of his shell. Nowra represents Lewis’s transformation to the audience through his confidence building and his ability to stand up for himself. Also, the patients give Lewis very reasonable views
His idea of the patients he was about to work with was one of crazed behaviours, even with the social worker Justin’s reassurance that “They are normal people who have done extraordinary things, thought extraordinary thoughts”. Roy, the most verbal patient, who came up with the whole idea of performing ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’, had the same amount of faith in Lewis as Lewis had in himself, which startled Lewis into forming a negative attitude towards the play. Nowra expresses through a strong tone (don’t turn it into a language analysis) that Lewis’s demeanour shifts throughout the play. He visually sees what the patients are capable of doing; his understanding of them becomes stronger and believes the play will work. He gains the respect from the cast who come together and are able to provide the other patients with the show they were promised. Lewis was a changed man at the end of the play, and his views on certain issues had changed with some persuasion from the