The Shoe- Horn Sonata
***
"The Shoe- Horn Sonata" is a play by John Misto that gives an insight into two lives of two female POWs in WW II and is a vector of Misto’s thoughts. It explores the little known and often terrible events associated with female prisoners of war. The play follows a friendship of two women through the war to a point of tension that’s beyond what any normal friendship would have to deal with. Misto engages his audience by using a multitude of mediums to portray his story creating a truly multimedia performance. The playwright challenges the audience to look beyond this to the underlying ideas of survival, loyalty and truth.
***
The play opens with a scene almost as dramatic as the characters, introducing Bridie. She stands on a spotlight demonstrating the "Kow Tow" bow for respect in the centre of the stage then "claps her hands sternly", immediately revealing the strong assertive nature of her character. The audiences become intrigued, and listen as she straightens difficulty from the Kow Tow, showing she is forceful and feisty but not young. As the "On Air" sign becomes visible the audiences realize she is being interviewed as she informs her audience she had enlisted in WW II following her dad’s footsteps. She tells her audience that her father gave her a Shoe-horn and two pieces of advice,
“Don’t sit on a toilet seat until you have lined it with toilet paper” and
“Never kiss a Pommie on the lips”.
A marching song “Fall in Brother” was heard as images became visible on the screen of “Women Disembarking Singapore”. Misto created a dramatic atmosphere that captured the audience’s attention right through the introduction.
The second scene appeared to be in the motel room where Bridie’s Friend Sheila is introduced. This scene was in the Motel Room, which was used several times in the play being a place where private revelation and growing tension between Bridie and Sheila took place. Tension between the two took place immediately in scene two as,
“Bridie and Sheila stop in the doorway. There is slight but obvious tension between them”,
Silence and body language were used by the two characters to create such tension towards the audiences as it is a emotion which no words can cater for or adequately express.
More so, the purpose of this play was to illustrate the common bond between women, even in the face of the law. It proves that in hard times people of a common bond usually stick together, and written in the face of the up and coming women’s suffrage movement provides the reader with a real understanding of the motivation and the dedication these women put into their work.
“On the other side of our barbed wire fence were twenty or thirty Aussie men – as skinny as us – and wearing slouch hats. Unlike the Japs, they had hairy legs. And they were standing in rows – serenading us.”
The play begins with a grand celebration, in which the characters toast to the New Year. Agnes admits that she feels relatively safe living at Berlin at this time, and the group decides to make up a story together. They story is of a cold night and a watchman who tries to beat nature by fighting back and arming himself with a warm coat and scarf. At first he succeeds, but later finds that even his coat and scarf are
...ley’s admiration towards ‘Drover’ with their desirable love developing over time. Luhrmann contrasts the audience with the emotional expressions and differing body language, which is significantly visually depicted The non-diegetic music tempo speeds up, creating a dramatic tension and signifying the importance of the couple’s connection and emphasises on their emotional intensity.
At the start the playwright creates slight allusions that produce tension; Sheila wondered ‘half seriously what had happened to Gerald previous summer when Gerald never went near Sheila’. Lady Croft and Sir George have not come to the engagement feast and Eric is behaving quite anxiously. Eric’s strange behaviour on the cheerful occasion creates trepidation and foreshadows a rather surprising event which interests the audience.
The character’s demeanour changes the entire atmosphere of the movie due to experiencing serious trauma through bullying in childhood. The
Bennett uses farcical elements, although not exclusively, in the play. The comedic device of stock characters is exploited to the farcical subgenre, with them being created to provide the material for the inclusion of farce in the play. For example, the French scene in Act One predominantly these elements mixed with an underlying polemic and political message, which is prevalent throughout. Firstly, the audience is separated from the characters with the use of foreign dialogue. This reflects Hector’s need to make sure their lessons are ‘not a part of the system’ . When the headmaster enters the boys’ lesson with Hector, he is forced by Hector to speak French and accept the absurdity of the situation in the classroom. ‘Porquoi Belgique?’ He asks when the boys’ state they are playing the characters of wounded soldiers in Belgium. This choice of lexis by the Headmaster immediately betrays his stock character, revealing that he is the buffoon of the play, as this man, with the most legitimate power in the play, is manipulated into believing lies told be eighteen year old boys and an old general studies teacher of ‘studied eccentricity’ . In addition, this quote also highlights and exaggerates his ignorance and lack of intellect, as the Headmaster ‘was a geographer’ and ‘went to Hull’ . If one had studied Geography degree at university, it would be expected for them to know why wounded soldiers would be in Belgium.
There are thousands of scenes from movies and television shows that represent important communicative acts. In this particular case study, I will take two scenes of my choosing, one that shows miscommunication and one that shows successful communication, and explain what happens in them through the lens of human communication, using key terms and concepts that I’ve learned in class. The first scene I’ll examine is from the Nick Cassavetes-directed film John Q, and the scene is an example of successful communication.
On Friday January 6th 2017, guests Grant Elbert and Pamela Haynes performed for Grant’s trumpet recital. There were two instruments included in this performance including the Trumpet which was played by Grant and the piano which was played by Pamela. During the preview of Grant’s trumpet recital, he performed “Sonata for Trumpet and Piano” by Kent Kennon, which was three movements. This piece was designed for difficult and advanced music for trumpet players. This specific piece of music is known as a modern. During this piece Grant uses three sound changes for the trumpet including the cupmute, cupsorche and harmonmute. All three movements had different meters, harmony, tempo, rhythm, and form. However, all three movements included the same
Many of the short stories within the collection The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, can be compared and contrasted in regards to elements including theme, characters, and technique. In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” the character Mary Anne Bell appears to be apparently similar to the character Martha from “The Things They Carried,” in that both are young women who have relations with a soldier in the war. Though upon further analysis of Mary Anne, it appears she is far from alike to Martha. Rather, an unexpected parallel can be drawn between the characters Mary Anne and Elroy Berdahl, from “On the Rainy River,” in that both appear to be epitomes of masculinity. The peculiar connection between these characters developed by Tim O’Brien shines a light on the ambiguity of conventional gender roles of men and women.
them as unattractive and menacing and everything about this scene is threatening and ugly and makes the audience feel uncomfortable impact. in the audience of the. The music is like funeral music, loud and sad. The... ... middle of paper ... ...bloodshed and murder that follow.
The first scene is a television which automatically brings the modern feel to the film. As the camera gives the sense of the television moving slowly towards us we suddenly break into a quick speedy montage showing the story and some of the characters. The introduction to the play is repeated, once on the television by the news reader and again during the opening montage. This may be to create effect or perhaps to show the importance and publicity this story had. The scene in the petrol station focuses on the rivalry and hatred of the two families, The Capulets and the Montagues.
In addition, the movie accurately depicts the family dynamic and the difficulties faced by the characters. Lee’s casting meticulously displays the emotions and internal conflict that each character possesses through their body language and facial expressions. For example the scene where Jack is dancing with Lureen, he smiles in front of her when she is looking at him and pretends to enjoy his time, but the moment she turns her back he displayed his true emotions of sadness and emptiness due to his pretention of being something that he is not. Moreover, the progression of Alma’s internal strife after seeing Ennis’ passionate kiss with Jack is presented through her faces expressions and tone. For instance, the moment that she sees the kiss, her eyes show true astonishment, and then followed by sadness and realization; this was displayed without any need for words.
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
Though movie has censored many of the main themes which were depicted in William’s original play. But the internal turmoil, struggle and chaos of emotions which is portrayed by the characters in the movie, makes for this deviation and enables the viewer to feel the gravity and magnitude of entire situation vividly.