'The Shoehorn Sonata\r'

'The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto The arising mental picture, with Bridie demonstrating the enigmatical, subservient bow, the kow-tow, demanded of the prisoners by their Japanese guards during tenko, takes the audition straight into the meet. As the interviewer, Rick, poses questions, music and images from the fight period flash on the interpenetrate behind Bridie, and the auditory modality realises they atomic human action 18 watch the filming of a video recording objective. The meter is directly, and Bridie is being asked to reelect the events of fifty eld earlier.This pictorial matter establishes who Bridie is, and introduces the audience to the situation: the recall and in a sense the re-living of memories of the historic period of imprisonment. motion picture TASK: Re-read the swindle. Go by means of and highlight specific characteristics of our dickens protagonists †ensuring that you screwing provide take the stand from the play (The evidence co uld be lines or phrases of dialogue, their actions, current or historical, or their embody language as describe in the text edition. ) Character| particularised Characteristics| Evidence from the play| Bridie| | |Shelia| | | ACT &type A; SCENE| Spine Summary (3-4 lines)| Quotations| suffice 1, aspect 1| | | procedure 1, motion-picture show 2| | | feign 1, dead reckoning 3| Eg. Women find themselves in the water and the air ‘Young Jerusalem is sung by young Sheila …. | | play 1, scope 4| | | spot 1, position 5| | | Act 1, Scene 6| | | Act 1, Scene 7| | | Act 1, Scene 8| | | Shoe Horn Sonata Act hotshot Analysis Re read all(prenominal) pic and write a piddling sum-up outlining the ‘spine’ of the stage setting (What keeps it together). import in full two of the briny quotes from the scene that supports the spine summary.Do this for AT least 3-4 scenes PER act Shoe Horn Sonata Act TWO Analysis ACT & ampere; SCENE| Spine Summary (3-4 lines)| Quotations| Act 2, Scene 1| | | Act 2, Scene 2| | | Act 2, Scene 3| | | Act 2, Scene 4| | | Act 2, Scene 5| | | Act 2, Scene 6| | | Act 2, Scene 7| | | Re read each scene and write a short summary outlining the ‘spine’ of the scene (What keeps it together). Write in full two of the main quotes from the scene that support the spine summary. Do this for AT LEAST 3-4 scenes PER act Characterisation Characterisation can mean two things: 1.The temperament of a particular character as it is presented in a text. This would include age, appearance, temperament, foregone life experiences, personality traits, characteristic slipway of expression, values and ideals, motivations, reactions to circumstances, responses to other characters. 2. The methods the composer of a text has engagementd to project this character to the audience or reader. These would include, among other things, the words they use or others use about them, their decisions and actions, their body language, responses to others’ words and actions, the motivations they reveal. See Activities] The play’s structure is based on the differences in character and temperament among Bridie and Sheila which are gradually revealed to the audience. The action of the play revisits their past hardships and terrors, further the final focus is on the trauma they affirm suffered after fightds. The disclosure of the crises they shoot each positiond is presented as a healing action, which leads to the resolution of their differences and a square(p) closure to the play. Misto’s own motivations for researching these events and piece of music the play is made gull in his Author’s Note (p. 6). His perceptions of Australia’s neglect to honour such women as Bridie is suggested when she says: â€Å"In 1951 we were each sent cardinal pounds. The Japanese said it was compensation. That’s tanner a twenty-four hour period for each day of imprisonment. ” In troduction to Play Sheila’s comer at the motel from Perth introduces immediately one ancestor of friction between the two: they clear conduct not been in place with one another for many decades. to each one is just finding out basic information as whether the other of all time espouse or had children.The audience sees, too, that the mania of Bridie’s greeting: â€Å"Gee it’s good to see you” is not reciprocated by Sheila. The audience wonders why not. The revelations by the residue of Act One will in the long run show the reason. The body language described on page 26 indicates the deep underlying tension between the twoâ€yet the scene abates with their lifting the suitcase as they used to lift the coffins of the dead: to the cries of Ichi, ni, san—Ya-ta! Their dual-lane experiences are a strong bond. The Shoe-Horn Sonata is separate into two acts: the longer Act One, with octette scenes, and a shorter Act Two, with six scenes.It f ollows delegacy custom by providing a study climax before the final blanket of Act One, which resolves some of the suspense and mystery, exactly leaves the audience to wonder what direction the play will take after the interval. The action cuts between two pin downtings: a television studio and a Melbourne motel room. The extreme risk the prisoners expectd is indicated by Bridie during this exposition: everyplace-crowded ships gliding towards an enemy fleet, the unpreparedness of the British garrison in Singapore for the invasion, the fear of rape for the women.Misto thusly sets up some of the issues to be confronted during the credit line of the play between the Australian Bridie and the causality side of meat school girlfri ratiocination Sheila. Sheila appears in Scene Two, and the study conflict of the play begins to simmer. Journey with memory For the rest of Act One, the shared memories of Bridie and Sheila become those of the audience, through the dramatic techn iques Misto uses. In Scene Three, the audience is reminded of how young Sheila was when she was interpreted prisoner.The voice of a teenage girl sings part of ‘Jerusalem’, the stirring and ethereal song with words by English poet William Blake, and the mature Sheila joins in. (Later Bridie and Sheila sing it together. ) Bridie’s pose from their first meeting as shipwreck survivors drifting in the sea is protective of Sheila. She sees her as â€Å"another stuck-up pom”, and hits her with her Shoe-Horn to keep her awake. Sheila has been taught by her snobbish fix to look down on the Irish, the enounce she puts on the Sydney nurse from Chatswood because of her surname.Further differences between the two sur brass section in Scene Five, when the â€Å"officers’ nine-spot” set up by the Japanese is described. But by the end of this scene they are recalling the choir and â€Å"orchestra” of women’s voices set up by Miss Drybur gh. Scene Six opens with Bridie and Sheila in a trip the light fantastic line singing the parodies of well-k forthwithn songs they’d used to taunt their captors and keep their hard drink up Pain and tension soon they are arguing, focusing on their differing attitudes to the British women who in Bridie’s view were â€Å" interchange themselves for food” to the Japanese.The tension rises as more than and more is revealed about the deteriorating conditions for the prisoners and the relentless number of deaths, especially in the Belalau summer camp. At the end of the Act, in a dramatic gesture, Sheila returns the Shoe-Horn. She had claimed to cover it for quinine to save Bridie’s lifeâ€but in fact as she at a time reveals she had been forced to sleep with the enemy to procure the medicine. She extorts from Bridie the implicit admission that she would not run through made that sacrifice for her. Bridie says nothing, but cannot face Sheila.Sheila is shattered by the realisation: â€Å" every(prenominal) these years I’ve told myself that you’d sustain done the same for me. [Calmly] I was wrong, though, wasn’t I? ” Act Two opens stomach in the studio, where Bridie and Sheila pardon on the documentary the appalling conditions in the death camp of Belalau. Suspense is built by the revelation that orders had been given that no prisoners were to survive to the end of the war. The audience wants to know how there could have been survivors. They also want to know how or if the tension in the relationship between the two women can be resolved.It becomes clear that the traumatised Sheila cannot in civilian life face any sexual relationship; nor has she matt-up able to return to Britain or to face remaining with her family in Singapore. She has led a quiet life as a librarian in Perth. Her nights are alter with nightmarish recollections about Lipstick Larry, and she drinks quite a too much. In contrast, B ridie had been happily married for years to the cheeky Australian soldier who had waved and winked at her at Christmas behind the wire. She is now widowed and childless. Ambush and resolutionMisto is preparing an ambush for the audience. By Scene Twelve, Bridie’s â€Å"disgrace” is revealed. Spooked when she is meet by a group of cackle Japanese tourists in David Jones Food Hall, she runs by with a tin of shortbread and subsequently pleads guilty in court to shoplifting. â€Å"I still lie awake squinch with shame” she tells Sheila. She could not explain the honor about her phobia to the court or to her family and friends. The effect on Sheila is more than Bridie expected. She now decides that she can be at relaxation only if she faces the truth in public.She explains: â€Å" at that place are probably thousands of survivors like usâ€still trapped in the warâ€too ashamed to tell anyone. ” Bridie urges her not to. But in Scene bakers dozen aft er they have recounted how they were eventually find and rescued, days after the end of the war, it is in fact Bridie who reveals the truth of Sheila’s valiancy and self-sacrifice. She then finds the courage to ask Sheila to explain about her shoplifting arrest The scene ends with the declaration Bridie has waited fifty years for: â€Å"And I’d do it all over again if I had to…. cause Bridie’s my friend… ” The tensions between the two have now been resolved: the secrets are out, some(prenominal) the personal ones and the long-hidden information about the experiences of the women prisoners and internees. The abbreviated and cheerful last scene shows their friendly relationship restored, the Shoe-Horn returned to its rightful owner, plans made for a Christmas reunion, and, finally, the peacetime trip the light fantastic they had promised one another in the camp. The blasphemous Danube plays: â€Å"It is the music of joy and triumph and su rvival. ”\r\n'