Analyse Ways Essay

The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto has five main themes or concerns. They are History and Memory, major mogul and Control, Heroism and Relationships and War and Atrocities. John Misto explores all these ideas while telling the story of Bridie and Shelias reunion fifty years after they last saw severally other.The play is about the histories of the women and the nurses that were captive of the Nipponese during World War Two their individual histories and joint suffering. The stories of these women were never made official and there is no g all overnment recognition of their plight and few, if any, official records. These agonyful memories are not part of any official history and this is made clear in the play. The British didnt want anyone to know about us. Theyd have lost prestige if people found out how women of the Empire had lived in the war. So for the sake for magnate and Country, they burned out diaries. either last one. Shelia, chance Thirteen.Misto makes it clear in the course of the play that the memories of the women are accurate. The oral stories from these fictional characters have juxtaposed over them the factual images to confirm and extrapolate the stories of the women. The visual images of the thin, famishment people are very strong and clear to an audience, for example, Scene Seven opens with a photo of most women POWs emaciated, haggard and impoverished.This is telln while Bridie explains how thin Sheila and herself got while at the Japanese camps, The lightest I got was exactly five stone The visual images show exactly what the women are talking about and add to the sense of theatre round the play. They heighten the audiences understanding of the enormity of the issue.There is usage of background sounds throughout the play, for example in Scene Five when Bridie explains what happened on Radji Beach on Banka Island there is sounds of machine gun fire and cries of women on the soundtrack. The dues ex machine effect of these ampli fied sounds further highlights the theme of memories and history, linking some(prenominal) the action and the memories of the two women on stage.The Shoe-Horn Sonata explores forcefulness relationships at a number of levels. The most obvious power play on stage occurs between the interviewer and the women he is interviewing. This power play has an ambiguous moment in which the women are uncertain as whether Rick has overheard a private conversation in Scene Ten. This is also explained in the stage directions Bridie and Shelia look up, startled. Then they both realise they are wearing small microphones. They both wonder whether every word has been overheard Rick also has the power to choose what questions to ask, and what to edit out of his documentary film.On another level we can turn back the role of power between the prison guards and prisoners. The guards abuse their power physically, sexually and emotionally and many seemed to enjoy the pain they inflicted. Lipstick Larrys co mment in Scene Eight, Plenty of room in the graveyard for her is typical of the cruelty the guards exhibit. The prisoners had little choice but to cooperate and be injure and abused, this in turn had a large physiological effect on both women.This is shown when Shelia explains that she still has nightmares about Lipstick Larry in Scene Ten haunted Every night when I fall asleep, Lipstick Larrys waiting. He calls to me and I go to him and no one can change that. Not even you.The Japanese dominated the women in every aspect they even made them bow to the Japanese flag every morning. In Scene Nine, the two characters are reminded of this power by the presence of the Japanese flag that is being intercommunicate on the back screen. It doesnt move and dominates the stage a continuing reminder of how the women lived their lives in the camp and the power and control that continues to affect them. This emphasises to the audience just how horrible the camps really were for the women and ho w they continue to affect them today, fifty years on.Mistos play revolves around the heroic deeds and relationships that are up held by the women during the war. The heroic deeds were acts of physical courage of the highest order. For Sheila, the supreme sacrifice of selling her body to the Japanese in order to obtain the necessary drugs for her friends survival is all the more poignant as we understand the cultural andsocial background that she had pick out from.Misto focuses on the unsung heros of the war, for example the Australia nurse that washed the bed pans of the women on the way to Belalau. It was the bravest act I have ever seen. She didnt get a medal for it butall of us loved for of that (Sheila) The stories of the two women are expanding the conventional view of heroism to include acts of sacrifice beyond simple physical courage.The Shoe-Horn Sonata shows clearly that relationships are able to survive the toughest of times. The relationship of Bridie and Shelia survive s not just now the horror of the prisoner of war camps but also the pain of their reunion decades after the war. Misto uses a variety of theatrical techniques to convey this relationship to the audience and show that survival and growth are features of the relationship.Misto gives evidence of how tough times were in the camps with a combination of dialogue and screen images being used to illustrate what had happened to these people, for example, the slides of the women POWs at the open of Scene Seven. These slides portray the starving bodies, rough conditions and brutality yet through all this the relationship gets stronger.The music played throughout the play symbolises the stage at which Bridie and Sheilas relationship is. For example, Scene Ten closes with Anne Sheltons Ill walk alone displaying to the audience that at this point in the play Bridie and Sheilas relationship is at its most frail point because the truth about Sheilas sacrifice has just been revealed.The play highl ights the horrors of war particularly for women and civilians. The atrocious way in which human beings treat familiar spirit human beings in a wartime situation is not restricted to the Japanese, but seen to be central to war itself. The atrocities are seen to have affected both womens lives ever after. For example Bridies fear of the Japanese people in David Jones.What is particularly significant for these women is the requirement to keepsmiling (Scene Nine) and to repress the memories. For these women the memories of the atrocities are tinged with offense and shame. In some respects this amount to an even worse atrocity to plague the lives of these women after the war.The humour used by Misto in the play, derives not only from the way in which the women used the power of the human spirit to laugh at adversity, but also from the way in which the playwright has juxtaposed those moments of notification of comic events with the horrors of the memories of the reality. The light and d ark in this play allows us to be both horrified and entertained. As in any great tragedy, the comic allows not simply relief from the pain, but help us to question the reasons for the horror.John Misto believes that the women victims of this defeat of the British deserve to have their stories told and their sufferings recognised by a immense audience. Having talked to real survivors he wrote the play in the hope that more people would be exposed to their suffering and above all to their courage.The dialogue, music, the sound effects and the projected images work together to shape the audiences response and to tell the powerful story of the womens memories, raw vulnerability, strong relationships and heroism.