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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Others
- Costumes: Does it change as the play progresses? How is colours, style and
texture used?
- Lighting: How is shadow and illumination used to represent ideas?
- Character Gestures and Mannerism: how does what characters do represent
their personality and thematic purpose?
- Line Delivery: tone, pace, volume, pausing, intonation..
- Dialogue
- Monologues: Bridie has two monologues alone on stage twice, Sheila is alone on
stage twice but is both times silent, showing Bridie’s more confident, and Sheila’s
more reserved nature.
Themes –
- Friendships,
Between Bridie and Sheila and how much they gave up for each other and wouldn’t
be here today without one-another. Sharing of the caramel; Sheila giving herself up
for Bridie; Sheila gave up her dinner for Bridie when it was her birthday...Bridie saves
Sheila when they are in the ocean. Sheila gives her virginity to the Japs in order to
obtain quinine when Bridie is almost dying from malarial fever, however Bridie
believes she traded the Shoe Horn
also = ignorance because she doesn’t consider how the Shoe
horn would have been useless to the Japs.
- Survival,
The Shoe Horn Sonata.
The Choral Orchestra – “We forgot the Japs –we forgot our hunger- our boils-..
everything.. We rose above the camp- ..above the war.. Fifty voices set us free.”
The choral orchestra gave the POWs a ‘reason to live’, creating a sense of hope and
showed that they still believed that the war would end and they would finally be set
free.
The shoe horn survives the whole war and many years after and so represents
survival and the will to live. Represents the enduring nature of the women’s
friendship and love.
- Resilience,
Choral Orchestra: Defying the guards, the reactions of the viewers – including the
Japanese (in Paradise Road).
Bridie, who does not know how to swim, keeps Sheila alive when they are stranded
in the ocean. Depicted through the dialogue.
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Sheila shows a great sense of resilience when talking about the things that got her
through the war. “I’d remind myself I was part of an Empire – and if others could
endure it, so could I.”
- British imperialism/ ignorance/ lack of help from government,
The non-recognition from the Australian army could have also have been driven by
an inability for the winning men to accept responsibility for what happened to some of
their women.
- War and atrocities,
Treatment/Punishments: Kowtow, Burning of the women when she tries to access
the Quinine, Kneeling in the sun surrounded by spikes.
Health/Deprivation: withholding of the quinine, food, medicine, malaria, dysentery,
Beri Beri. Toilets - Lack of Hygiene, Lack of respect, “We had to squat – in front of
everyone.. They wanted to humiliate us” (Bridie) “Plenty of Room in the Graveyard..”
- Heroism,
Sheila gives herself up, and therefore her dignity and self respect, to the Japs for
Quinine for Bridie. Bridie presents Sheila’s sacrifice as an act of heroism by a brave
young woman in a place of war (through the interview). Visually represented that
Bridie is trying to comfort Sheila by squeezing her hand. An emotional climax, much
more than the interviewer could have expected. “They don’t give medals for stuff like
that” (Bridie).
Adrienne defends herself against a Rape (in Paradise Road).
Chinese POW risking her life to obtain Quinine, she is caught and burnt alive as a
symbol of retaliation from the Japanese.
- Attitudes to women.
There is a view that, until very recently, war was a male adventure, macho and
patriarchal. From this perspective it is not a surprise that the suffering of women is
not recorded or heeded or even remembered.
“The Japs would come around and beat us for the fun of it ‘useless mouths’ they
used to call us.”
It was though demeaning by the Japanese soldiers to watch over women prisoners
so they felt no honor could be attached to that job.
The women had no business being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps in
the official view, civilian women and children had no business being in a war zone.
Lavender Street/ Comfort Women/ Officers Club: “The Japs wanted us because they
knew they couldn’t have us, But they could pick and choose from the Poms.” (Bridie)
No respect for the women. “ The Japanese weren’t scared of much but tuberculosis
terrified them.” They managed to escape the night with the Japanese by faking
disease – used an old bloodied handkerchief.
Link to Paradise Road (one or two examples) – by Bruce Beresford
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The film examines and explores how, in times of adverse danger and suffering,
people have the capacity to make it through by means of moral support and
strength.
- SURVIVAL
The Choral Orchestra – lots of visual features contribute to create this sense of hope
and light above the darkness. The orchestra becomes surrounded by light as they
sing creating the feeling of an oasis in the midst of war. Audience feels a sense of
hope along with the characters; moment of uplift-ence.
The Japanese soldiers see the beauty in their singing; eventually put down their guns
and listen.
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Rosemary looses the will to live after her boyfriend tries to escape but she sees him
being captured and beaten by the Japanese.
Represented as an oasis in the midst of danger and darkness. The camera slowly
pans out into a distant shot to visually represent this (the shelter and girls singing are
lit up, the surrounding camp and landscape are amongst darkness) =
- FRIENDSHIPS
Although of different ages, nationalities and backgrounds, a bond grew up as they
face the lack of food and medicine and the brutal behaviour of their captors.
- RESILIENCE
They even started organizing a voice orchestra (The Choral Orchestra) using
remembered musical scores painstakingly written out again. As the years pass, the
women, led by Adrienne, form a "vocal orchestra" that not only softens the guards'
demeanor, but also lifts the women's spirits as it provides a purpose in their lives.
- WAR AND ATROCITIES
Treatment/Punishments: Kowtow, Burning of the women when she tries to access
the Quinine, Kneeling in the sun surrounded by spikes.
Health/Deprivation: withholding of the quinine, food, medicine, malaria, dysentery.
Lavender Street/Comfort women.
The film highlights the atrocities of war.
E.g. the woman doused in petrol, then set alight.
- HEROISM
Adrienne defends herself against a rape.
Chinese POW risks her life to obtain Quinine. She is aware of the risk she is taking,
however she puts this behind her. She is caught and burnt alive as a symbol of
retaliation from the Japanese. The danger of this situation is shown through the
background sound effects, as well as the dark lighting scheme, and the way that the
character is extremely careful of her every movement. When the lights and sirens
come on it becomes very obvious for the audience that she will be captured and
tortured.
- ATTITUDES TO WOMEN
In Paradise Road, the young and attractive women are taken off to a splendid Dutch
colonial home occupied by Japanese officers to be comfort women. It is 1943, and
the women have already suffered prolonged deprivation. The Japanese interpreter
tentatively puts an invitation to them as they stand nervously in a clean room looking
at a table piled with rich food in vibrant colours (contrasts to the colored costuming of
the women. In effect, he asks them to leave the squalor, starvation, disease and fear
of death in the internment camp for the food, soap, hot water, satin sheets and hope
of life in the officers’ club. There is, of course, a cost for making the change: the
women who live in the club will have to give sexual pleasure to the Japanese. And
there is an added moral and practical complication.
E.g. As Pargiter says to one waverer, Topsy Merritt, if you go I will be an alto
short. Those who exchange the receipt of some sensual pleasures for the provision
of other sensual pleasures are told that they are weakening the orchestra, and so
weakening all women in the camp. Topsy agrees to "starve and sing", but many other
women go to live in the Japanese officers’ club.
- ATTITUDES OF THE JAPANESE.
E.g. There are many poignant moments: the scene deep in the forest, when the
Japanese guard tries to impress Adrienne with his singing, as they sit dwarfed
on the huge exposed roots of a tree, is one of the most touching in the film.
One guard is particularly nicer towards the women in the camp. At the end of the
Officers club scene The translator lowers his eyes and speaks to the women in
respect. giving an emotionally evocative effect. Confuses the audience: supposed to
feel hatred towards the Japanese or not?
There is no great focus on any of the Japanese guards in the Shoe Horn Sonata,
especially not in regards to compassion and guilt.
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- WAS NOT IN THE FILM.
The Banka Island massacre was not included in the film. It occurs so early in the
sequence of events and is so powerful in its impact that it would be likely to make
everything that follows anticlimactic. The film-makers having chosen to make the
voice orchestra, the triumph of human accomplishment and the beauty of
sound over constraint and squalor, central to the film.
- EFFECTS ON THE AUDIENCE
Beautifully crafted film leaves a legacy of great emotional impact.
Hugely satisfying cinematic experience that takes the viewer on the harrowing
journey from pre-war Singapore to the atrocities of the prisoner of war camps.
There are many occasions where pictures alone speak to greater effect than words
could ever convey. The beauty of the pure music, in such an otherwise ugly
environment, is moving to the extreme.
The film's music gives it an evocative edge, and it's sharply shot by esteemed
cinematographer Peter James. As for the choir sequences, they are amongst the
most moving and resonant scenes in a film full of emotional power.
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E.g.2 Black Humor: Cate Blanchetts character, after kneeling in the sun for a
whole day surrounded by spikes and then a Japanese soldier pretends he is
about to kill her, after he leaves she whispers “I knew he was bluffing.”