Brief Shoe Horn Sonata Essay

A wise man once said, “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends”. Two women who go through horrific scenes of war and ill treatment of the Japanese but their friendship is what gives them purpose, comfort and strength to carry on. Though after fifty years of the War and of being separated they have no ill feelings toward the Japs but are emotionally torn by their separation. This is the story of The Shoe Horn Sonata.
The Shoe-Horn Sonata is characterised by having a two act structure, two main time frames, two settings and two main characters. The two sets are: the television studio and the motel room.
These are visually presented depersonalised and simple, allowing theatrical flexibility. The interplay of dialogue, music, sound effects and projected images work together to create wartime setting and an extra emotional dimension to the play. The audience’s proximity to the stage enhances the intimacy created by the bareness of the stage and the re-connection of the two main characters: Bridie an Australian Army Nurse & Sheila a British Civilian.
The broad emotional feel of the play is embedded in the dialogue of the script that uses idiomatic expression and juxtaposition to individualise the characters personalities and backgrounds.
Descriptive Language is used to recapture the past, exposing fears, secrets and hopes. Humour is also used to soften some of the horrors of the past. The conversational tone of the interview sessions add explicit detail while establishing the creditability of the witnesses.
Music complements the visual action of the text. The lyrics of songs and the chosen music illuminates multiple interpretations of ‘sonata’ within the play in that the music often functions to relay historical events and the more personal story of Bridie and Sheila. Even when the numbers in their choir decimated they continued for they thought it was up to them to carry on. “We sang our sonata whenever we