HSC Standard English – Alex Faulkner Q1: Cosi is shaped by the decisions of significant characters. Select one significant character in the play and explore the impact of their choices and action. Cosi, a play written by Louis Nowra, is shaped by the decisions of significant characters and due to the significance of a character the outcomes of these decisions can shape life and can affect other characters around them. Doug, Is a patient who was sent to the mental institution as a result of burning
Cosi – Louis Nowra ‘Each patient in Cosi has their own way of escaping reality.’ Discuss. In his play, Louis Nowra creates a way for each patient in the institution to elude themselves from reality. Each patient that Lewis works with in creating the play has their own way of coping while in the institution. Roy for example escapes reality by taking his acting somewhat overly serious for where he is. Both Zac and Julie use their medication to bring themselves to an altered state of consciousness
Lewis Nowra’s play, Cosi is made successful through his use of language forms such as symbolism, dramatic techniques like the use of monologues and key themes such as the nature of madness. The theme of madness is contextually relevant to the time period the play was set in when mental health was a taboo subject and there were turbulent political and social times. The Vietnam War had separated Australian society and the sexual revolution was changing the original ideas of love and fidelity. Nowra’s
CWTC’s 2012 production of the play as an incursion - Overview: Cosi is a two act play, act one containing four scenes and act two containing five scenes. As CWTC’s production is specifically designed as an 85 minute incursion with minimal disruption to school timetabling, we have condensed the play to a single act while retaining each scene and the overall lineal, structural arc of the play as Nowra intended. While the full play requires nine actors with two actors doubling characters, our touring
'Cosi' is a semi-autobiographical play written by Louis Nowra, who explores the minds of patients and how they progress over time whilst being trapped in the confinements of the asylum as 'mental patients'. Lewis Riley the protagonist of play is ultimately transformed from a place that is far more depressing, not having much money to a world filled with love, insanity, comicality, illusions and senses of discovering self identity and self confidence. Placed into an environment where manic personalities
“Just marvellous, Lewis. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn’t think it was possible. Came right out of their shells. They blossomed, blossomed!” It is lewis who truly blossoms in Cosi. Do you agree? Louis Nowra’s evocative play entitled ‘Cosi is an earnest representation of society’s perception of a “mentally unstable” person. Set in the 1970’s during the Vietnam War, Nowra parallels the chaos of the war with the madness of the asylum as he positions the audience to condemn the values of society
Nowra wants to convey in this play. In Cosi, a drama play, I think that the playwright Louis Nowra wants to convey the true meaning of love and fidelity but also help the reader to understand the main issues of society’s perception of the mentally ill and attitudes toward the Vietnam War. Set in the early 1970s, Cosi is hilarious, yet poignant, look at life through the eyes of patients in an insane asylum who endeavour to mount a production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte as part of an occupational therapy
Mozart wrote, ‘women are like that’ to describe women’s betrayal towards love and fidelity. Do the characters in Cosi acknowledge this belief? Most likely, it is a yes in this case. In Cosi, the characters have different perspectives about this belief, but eventually they all came to a same conclusion, that all women are unfaithful and disloyal, especially in the case of the love affairs between Lewis, Lucy and Nick, Henry’s past marriage experience and the ambiguous relationship between Julie and
Cosi – Louis Nowra Act 1 Scene i 1. The setting that is described as a ‘burnt out Theatre’, inside is pitch black and outside is daylight. This expression gives the audience and immediate impact of how the patient’s environment at the institute indicates that they are closed off to the rest of their surroundings. The description from Louis Nowra (the writer of Cosi) gives an emphasis that those living with a mental illness are made out by society that they don’t have the ability to participate
COSI: 1. Lewis was in need of money, so he took on the job of directing a play in the mental institution. Nick and Lucy are very hesitant and cautious although patients such as Roy are keen. 2. Lewis’s transformation: At the start of the play, Lewis is nervous, doubtful and hesitant. This is evident through lines such as, “Don’t know” and “You said you were going to help me”. This indicates his lack of confidence about working with the patients in the asylum and directing the play on his