Cosi-Louis Nowra

Lewis is a young adult who has just graduated from university. In order to earn some extra money he gets a job directing a play at a mental asylum. He starts off shy and lacking confidence meeting all the patients at the mental asylum, especially Roy who is seen as controlling and passive.
At first the relationship between Lewis and the patients is rocky, until the event of the toilet fire, where we see the shift within the relationship Lewis shares with the patients. After the fire Justin comes in asking Lewis questions about how it happened and who did it. Firstly Lewis does not know how to respond to the questions, until Cherry lies about smoking in the bathroom and Lewis stands by her and continues the lie. This scene is important because it shows the development of the relationship growing between Lewis and the patients. It highlights Lewis’ allegiance to the patients and the importance of the play.

During this scene Lewis also becomes more capable of handling problems that occur between the patients. When Roy and Zac disagree on using the piano accordion for the overture, Lewis pulls Roy aside and explains the irrelevance of the overture, persuading him to allow Zac to play his piano accordion during the overture. By finding common ground between the two, Lewis is taking initiative and fulfilling his role as the director and leader of the group.

Not only does Lewis become capable of handling problems between the patients but he also learns how to deal with Ruth and her O.C.D. While rehearsing a scene Ruth gets obsessive with the coffee and bombards Lewis with numerous questions on how they will have the coffee. Lewis answers her questions with proper responses rather than what he did in scene one, there was short replies such as “we don’t need to have coffee’ and ‘we could have instant coffee’ they emphasis how Lewis’ character has developed since then. Now replying with answers like ‘ until we get real coffee we’ll pretend’. This shows that he is