The Shoe-Horn Sonata

527 Words3 Pages
In this speech I will reveal how the performance The Shoe-Horn Sonata conveys messages. This is a distinctly visual text, a distinctively visual text uses language as well as visual techniques to convey a message to an audience. The Shoe-Horn Sonata could be described as a distinctly visual text because throughout the play visual images are projected onto a screen. These images are displayed at relevant times to the subject of the dialogue of the play. Combined, these techniques result in a well conveyed message. In the play, act one scene three, an image of a Japanese flag is projected on stage. It gradually and brilliantly illuminates as the scene continues. During this scene an elderly pair of women named Bridie and Sheila are recalling the moment of capture by the Japanese, the set is a television studio where these characters are interviewed by an offstage voice of the character Rick. All sound apart from Bridie and Sheila’s voice are non-diagetic. The recalled events set an alternate scene for the audience to imagine. The audience imagines two young women covered in oil bobbing in the ocean. The image of the Japanese flag connects with the scene by having the dialogue inform the audience that they found a ship, but then spotted its flag. It is at this point when the flag is projected. The image instills a sense of dread on the audience and makes the scene more vivid and intense in their mind. A technique used in conjunction to the image is the sound of lapping waves. This helps make the event more real for the audience. Another technique used is the voices of young Bridie and Sheila singing ‘Jerusalem’ sounding waterlogged. This is followed by the on stage characters joining in on the song, hesitantly. This also helps to recreate the event in the minds of the audience. The voices of young Bridie and Sheila help the audience feel as though they
Open Document