Michael Gow's Away
Surrounds 3 families
Roy and Coral – lost their son in the Vietnam War (resort = wealthy)
Vick, Harry and Tom – dealing with Tom’s Illness (camping ground in tent = average)
Gwen, Jim and Meg – Gwen is head of the household (Caravan Park)
Away is about reconciliation and the power of healing through love and compassion
This play is about the experiences of a dying school boy, it is a celebration of life and the power to heal through gaining insight.
At the end, the characters accept their motives, ambitions, hopes and fears which determine their actions
Characters Imprisoned in a World which their worth as human beings is measured in the costs of their holidays
The quest of the characters in Away brings them home to the same old world, but with a renewed sense of reality.
The Great Depression (1929 – 1932)
- Left men with no work, therefore drank, stole and bet money, depressed as they can no loner provide for their families.
- Young children left school at the ages of 13-14 yrs old
- Young women took up amateur prostitution
- Young children were always in trouble
- Wife’s cohabited boarders who helped support the family.
Use of intertextuality
- A Midsummer Nights Dream
The use of fairies demonstrate the havoc and mischevious acts that reflect on the play, and shows Gwen how little she had to control it and acts as a catalyst for her to change. Tom plays Puck in the opening scene; a naughty prankster up to trouble. We see the similarities in the first Act when he tells Gwen that he hopes she has a rotten holiday, and that she will become ill.
Classic text adds dimension to the characters reality.
- King Lear
The Relevance of this play to Away is that both King Lear and Tom knew that they were dying, and there is nothing that can be done about it and they have accepted their fates, and have shown no fear about what lies ahead.
Significance = teaches them not to grieve, to accept fate that lies ahead. In order to go on living, you must first let go
Roy and Coral – lost their son in the Vietnam War (resort = wealthy)
Vick, Harry and Tom – dealing with Tom’s Illness (camping ground in tent = average)
Gwen, Jim and Meg – Gwen is head of the household (Caravan Park)
Away is about reconciliation and the power of healing through love and compassion
This play is about the experiences of a dying school boy, it is a celebration of life and the power to heal through gaining insight.
At the end, the characters accept their motives, ambitions, hopes and fears which determine their actions
Characters Imprisoned in a World which their worth as human beings is measured in the costs of their holidays
The quest of the characters in Away brings them home to the same old world, but with a renewed sense of reality.
The Great Depression (1929 – 1932)
- Left men with no work, therefore drank, stole and bet money, depressed as they can no loner provide for their families.
- Young children left school at the ages of 13-14 yrs old
- Young women took up amateur prostitution
- Young children were always in trouble
- Wife’s cohabited boarders who helped support the family.
Use of intertextuality
- A Midsummer Nights Dream
The use of fairies demonstrate the havoc and mischevious acts that reflect on the play, and shows Gwen how little she had to control it and acts as a catalyst for her to change. Tom plays Puck in the opening scene; a naughty prankster up to trouble. We see the similarities in the first Act when he tells Gwen that he hopes she has a rotten holiday, and that she will become ill.
Classic text adds dimension to the characters reality.
- King Lear
The Relevance of this play to Away is that both King Lear and Tom knew that they were dying, and there is nothing that can be done about it and they have accepted their fates, and have shown no fear about what lies ahead.
Significance = teaches them not to grieve, to accept fate that lies ahead. In order to go on living, you must first let go