How Does Misto Use Dramatic Structure and Language to Help the Audience Visualize the Events

7

Module A: Experience Through Language

- Elective 1: Distinctively Visual

Shoe Horn Sonata

John Misto’s Purpose –

-  To convey the experiences and suffering of the female POWs.

-  Educate Australians about their history.

-  Tribute/Memorial to the women: 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.

-  Evoke emotions in the audience: Shock/Anger, Sadness, Empathy, Confronted, Happiness for their final triumph of being free, little moments of joy and hope.

-  ‘It is precisely the playwright’s intention to startle his audience with unquestionable facts.’ – Vera Hams.

-  ‘There is no national memorial to the many Australian nurses who perished in the war. ..the government had rejected all requests for one.. I do not have the power to build a memorial. So I wrote a play instead.” – John Misto.

Overview

The play centres on the relationship between Sheila and Bridie, two elderly women, who experienced the trauma of a POW camp in Malay and who have had no contact since the end of the war. Bridie’s brashness and confidence create a strong physical presence. Sheila is a more remote and mysterious character and seems composed and collected. However, she is still governed by her memories. John Misto, through the visual medium of his play, explores their relationship, the effects of the past and the intimacy, dignity and triumph that occur when both women acknowledge their pasts. John Misto also examines the importance of the governments and society’s acknowledgment of events that occurred in our history and the fact that we cannot move on until we declare our past.

Structure –

The Play begins on a dark silent set, which evokes in the audience the darkness and pain of the characters memories as well as suggesting their stores have been hidden for too long. Out of the darkness with come truth.

Prison camp story is narrated in chronological order.

-  2 Acts,

1st Act is longer comprising of 8 scenes.

It follows theatrical custom by providing a major climax before the final curtain of Act One, which resolves some of the suspense and mystery, but leaves the audience to wonder what direction the play will take after the interval.

2nd Act is shorter with 6 scenes and shows progress and finally the resolution of their tensions and going public with what they feared to talk about before.

-  Double Hander,

A term used to describe plays in which only two characters appear. Only Bridie and Sheila appear on stage.

Reinforced in the title. A Sonata is a musical composition for two instruments (or two characters).

Very tight construction, very few combinations possible on stage.

Double hander usually means the plot of the play is very concentrated. No subplot.

The action is entirely focused on the relationship between Bridie and Sheila.

Tend to lend themselves to language games. Repartee, humorous dialogue, question and answer questions, one-liners, and quick short exchanges lead to lively and clever verbal entertainment.

Character Contrast.

Usually a feature of double handers. Action of the play could be interpreted as a resolution of their contrasts.

Bridie is initially much more confident, assertive and buoyant than Sheila.

Sheila is quieter, more reticent, and more serious than Bridie.

Once Sheila shares her secret with Bridie, the character contrasts could be seen to lessen. At the end of the play, an emotional harmony between the two women has been achieved.

Much of the tension in a double hander arises from who is to be the leader as usually one character assumes a higher status than the other.

Initially this is Bridie – determines the agenda of each scene, asks the questions, bosses. She feels that she has been the one betrayed. Sheila become the focus of dramatic attention after she reveals her secret. The tension is resolved in reconciliation.

-  Alternating/Contrasting settings,

Alternating settings of the TV studio and the motel room tend to set up contrasting rhythm of public narrative followed by private disclosure.

This sets up an expectation in the audience that the intellectual story is being played out in the TV studio, but the emotional narrative comes later in the motel room.

Each is impersonal and comparatively bare providing a neutral place for the memories to unfold. So as to shape images more potently though dramatic conventions and makes the tension between the two characters more obvious.

Obviously set in the present but is also very much about the past, to educate the audience about the past events to understand the enormous impacts they had on their lives.

The gap between the ‘official’ history and the ‘real’ history of one important event in their wartime experiences at Belalau is give considerable emphasis in this variation in the alternating pattern.

E.g. Scene 10, where Sheila is waiting in the TV studio for the afternoon session why Bridie joins her. Their intimate, animated, accusatory conversation is in stark contrast with the safer, factual accounts given when the microphones are ‘On Air’.

Distinctively visual –

-  What we see on Stage,

-  What we see in our Imagination,

-  Descriptive Language.

Audiences reactions –

The dramatic devices of the mixed media are being used deliberately to make the audience think about how history comes to be presented the way that it is.

One of the purposes of the multimedia presentation of the women’s stories is to invite the audience to question why such real or harrowing experiences occupying so many years and resulting in so many deaths are not officially recognized and recorded, let alone commemorated.

Techniques –

-  Social realism,

Play is based on historical events.

Pacific part of WWII from 1941-1945.

Even though the characters are fictional, it is based on the real experiences of real women.

In order to imaginatively recreate the reality of a past, some of the action occurs through mixed media that accompanies the spoken text or dialogue to help us visualize and imagine the nature and times of the photographs.

The dramatic feature of social realism is emphasized by the use of songs from the wartime period, photographs from the 1940’s projected onto the back wall of the stage and voice-over and other sound effects.

-  Symbolism,

The Shoe Horn.

Is a prominent symbol in the action of the play. Small discreet object but it comes to represent larger ideas. It symbolic meaning seems to evolve. Initially family love.. First appearance is when they are adrift in the sea representing the will to live by ‘tapping’ Sheila to keep her awake.

Bridie also carries the belief that Sheila obtained quinine by exchanging the shoehorn but therefore creates much conflict internally in Sheila and has much strain on their friendship. In the end though, it comes to represent the enduring nature of the women’s friendship and love.

The Kowtow.

Symbol of obedience and submissiveness. Is seen in the first seen with Bridie during the interview. A large photograph of women prisoners maintaining a deep surrendering bow to the Japanese guards is projected onto the back wall of the stage for a lengthy period reinforcing the power relationship between the women and their captors.

The Choral Orchestra

Organised by Miss Dryburgh. Symbol of the triumph of the spirit over the oppression of the camp. Much more than a musical experience.

-  Humor,

Despite the seriousness of the subjects there is considerable humor in the way Bridie and Sheila describe their wartime experiences.

Often a way of deflecting the fear surrounding the incidents.

Shows that although there is many hardships they still have hope and their lives to pull them through.

E.g. Lipstick Larry and the needlework by Bridie pg.40. The powerless women score a ‘point’ against one of their captors. This is short-lived and Bridie is given a beating soon afterwards. Sound effects/voice over is used here and as the scene ends and blacks out we here Bridie crying and being beaten by Lipstick Larry, the characters faces looks sad as they suddenly remember this part of the memory.

E.g. Lavender street story pg.44. After the description, she says ‘That night turned me off blind dates forever.’

E.g. Message from the Prime minister pg.67. Compared to the circumstances they are in they are told to “Keep smiling”. An example of the Blackest humor. After all the maltreatment they had been subjected to they are still able to laugh. Nonsensically, the next day they are made to stand in the sun for hours and are ordered to never smile again.

E.g. Absurdist humor pg.82. the women are herded to the top of the hill in the middle of the jungle to listen to a Japanese army band play a Viennese waltz, the Blue Danube, for 2 hours. “ The Geneva convention says: All prisoners must have culture. You womens have just have yours.”

-  Voice Over,

Rick the interviewer,

young Sheila and Bridie singing

Bridie getting beaten by lipstick Larry

Sheila giving herself up to the Japanese.

By superimposing the voices of Bridie and Sheila when they were in the camp over the contemporary action and dialogue, the past and present are blended together.

-  Sound Effects/ Music,

The music has an effect that enhances the images and each scene’s mood establishing the reality of the past and conveying the power of memory.

Complement the stories and reminiscences of Bridie and Sheila.

Can feel things much more deeply: Jungle crickets are broadcast during Sheila’s account of how she was abused in the soldier’s barracks. This insect noise comes to represent the deepening inner turmoil and emotional horror as she submits to her sexual ordeal. The deafening noise is a wonderful theatrical rendering of Sheila’s attempts to stifle and deaden any memory or feeling of the event. Reaches the crescendo. Example of expressionism.

-  Background Photographs/ Projected Slides,

Often create a juxtaposition with what is being said or are used to support.

The slides educate the audience about the war and help convey more effectively Misto’s themes – The pain of war, power and memories.

They also establish authenticity of Bridie’s and Sheila’s experiences, as well as allowing the audience to understand and relate more closely with them.

Complement the stories and reminiscences of Bridie and Sheila.

One of the purposes of the multimedia presentation of the women’s stories is to invite the audience to question why such real or harrowing experiences occupying so many years and resulting in so many deaths are not officially recognized and recorded, let alone commemorated.

The projected photographs are intended to comment on the stage actions.

-  Interview.

Complement the stories and reminiscences of Bridie and Sheila.

Half the play is in the TV studio, being interviewed for a TV documentary.

Formality to those events on stage. Each women is highlighting events that are almost impossible to put into words.

The public domain of the TV documentary also imposes some implicit restrictions on what a person will reveal.

A recording interview can have an inhibiting influence on what will be said. E.g. Sheila doesn’t tell the truth about how she got quinine for Bridie and Bridie opposes it initially, but eventually they tell it on camera (self censoring the darker moments of the prison camp). It is only in such a public forum as a TV documentary that she feels she can fully honour Sheila’s actions to get quinine.

Ironically, Rick’s documentary was the vehicle for the truth ‘being expressed’.

The interviewer Rick represents how women were controlled by unseen forces during the war as he is the one who is able to ‘call the shots’/who direct the interview although is only present through a voice over and is never seen. With Rick also not present on screen creates the focus on the women as this is their time to have their war experiences in the spotlight.

The Interview/Documentary is a Dramatic device in which women recount their experiences. It was a vehicle and reason to bring Bridie and Sheila back together as well as a reason to relive their memories and talk about it.

-  Flashbacks/Memories,

May help to deepen our understanding of what happened so long ago, their memories also alert us to what has been omitted.

Occurs through the median of the interview, is helped to be felt by the audience with the use of voice-overs and background photographs from the time or from their youth.

E.g. Young Sheila and Bridie in the water singing Jerusalem. The present Bridie and Sheila join in connecting the present and past together and shows that their memories are still with them today.

-  Stage Directions

-  Conflicts

Bridie is angry at Sheila for not trying to keep in contact for 50 years. Sheila told her that she was in England but she was really in Perth.

Sheila has internal conflict within herself because she is holding her secret and her experiences close to her heart as.. ‘I never really left [Belalau]”.

Bridie is angry at Sheila for giving herself up to the Japs for the Quinine, and for not telling her.

Sheila realises Bridie would not have done the same for her.