Cosi Essay How do composers present aspects of human experiences? The play Cosi (1971) by Louis Nowra examines the complexities of love, illusion and reality in order to challenge a contemporary audience’s understanding of madness by sympathetically portraying characters. Written during a period of the Vietnam War when Australians were evaluating their place in the world, through allegiances, beliefs and relationships with a global society, Nowra critiques society’s indifference to those suffering mental illness while emphasizing the importance of human connections when forced with life’s realities. Through effective integration of structure and dramatic devices, we learn that it is possible to take control of your own reality and make life more bearable.
“Love is not so important these days”… “What planet are you from?” love means something different to each character in the play. Discuss In Nowra’s play “Cosi” meaning of love is explored and challenged by the views of different characters. Each character has a clear definition of their personal and distinct understanding of what love and fidelity means. This assists in the notion of love beholding abundance of paradoxical nature. The characters also endorse the importance of love that is practical and realistic, this aspect of the play is illustrated mostly by the mental patients who have issues with distinguishing reality from their illusions.
Act 2 Scene 1 is used to be the point of which the issues start to become apparent, with the ensuing psychological and emotional effects on Katherina now she is being subjected to Petruchio entering her life. However, Shakespeare has designed Taming of the Shrew as a comedy, and these issues become an underlying feature, and not the play’s main focus. Act 2 Scene 1 is the first meeting between the two characters and their initial interaction is quite explosive. A social concern that is made clear through the exchange is the lack of respect Petruchio has for Katherina, which is influenced through the fact that the play was written in the time of a Patriarchal society, and women had to get married if they wanted to be respected – even if it meant losing all their finances and belongings to the possession of the husband. Petruchio bombards Katherina with compliments as soon as she walks in such as “bonny Kate”, “prettiest Kate in Christendom, Kate of Kate-Hall, my super-dainty Kate”, while being consistently referential to Katherina as being his through the use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’, even though at that point, they had barely just met.
The play functions to some extent as a validation of the conservative rejection of socialist ideals. Cosi tells the story of Lewis, a young university graduate who takes a job working with the patients at a mental institution. They aim to put on the opera Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart. Much of the play’s humour lies in the eccentricities of the various inmates who, Gilbert argues, function along quite conservative lines, presenting “politically incorrect” attitudes without provoking any sense of guilt: “Doug, for instance, can give voice to the aggressive misogyny [. .
2 ). It is also obvious that Nick is only helping Lewis so he can get something in return, “so you’ll help me out on the moratorium committee” but Lewis doesn’t end up helping Nick as later on he views the play being more important than helping a friend out. Nick Believes, as does Lucy that there are social and political issues much more important and valid than love and finality and he thinks Lewis is wasting his time in the asylum “Only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and fidelity. They’re definitely mad” (pg. 41) Nick says when Nick is at the asylum to help Lewis direct.
In order to achieve this, Brecht used the Alienation Effect that was prominent in Chinese theater. Brecht wanted his actors to “reject complete conversion” (Brecht 94). He felt that by creating a divide between the actor and the character, there would be a more natural performance and his audience could think independently and critically of the performance and their own lives. He encouraged his actors to be mentally flexible and use “self-observation” and “openly choose positions” to alter their performances to their audiences’ responses (Brecht 92). This, in his opinion, would help each actor avoid the “fourth wall” and to communicate his “awareness of being watched” (Brecht 92).
This is the reason it is evident with Herr Keller the rejection of types of music and composers in the text. In Maestro, allows a deeper understanding of secondary characters as well as the main characters. Herr Keller’s past is important as it enables us to understand him as a character, with music being a key symbol in his life. The maestro’s preference for certain eras of music allows the reader to recognise the pain he suffers when listening to specific composers, due to the suffering experienced in his past. Mozart and Bach represent the music Herr Keller uses to seek refuge of the romantics.
And it is only when doctors learn this message that they will learn anything really useful from this play. The doctors portrayed in W;t do not seem to appreciate this message, and doctors who see or read the play may also fail to appreciate it. And this, in the graphic words of the play, would be another “doctor fuckup” (p 85). Just as the play ends in a mistake, there is a danger that our professional reaction to the play will be a mistake. We may find ourselves, like the house officers at the end of the play, “coding a No-Code.” And the only way the play can teach us how not to make such a mistake is if we realize that the point of the play has both nothing and everything to do with learning how not to make mistakes.
In Lurhman’s version of Romeo and Juliet, he conveys the emotionality of the characters in a more believable way than the more traditional version by Zeffereli. When you read the play, you can’t always tell exactly how the characters are reacting to everything, so when you watch lurhmans version, he shows you more of the characters affection and proves the emotions better. So you can really understand and truly believe how the characters are feeling and reacting to every event that occurs. Maybe it is because he shows more comedy, and loving scenes. Zeffereli didn’t quite make the emotions of the characters believable to the audience; it was quite slow, boring and unclear.
Rogers to help her get rid of feelings of guilt for having slept with a single man and was concerned that Dr. Rogers was going to let her stew in her own feelings. Dr. Rogers was being genuine when he empathized with Gloria over this concern. Dr. Rogers replied that he didn't want to let Gloria stew in her feelings but they were discussing something so private that he couldn't possibly tell her what she should do. Dr. Rogers stated he was willing to work with her and help her to make her own decisions. Dr. Rogers concluded by saying "I don't know if that makes any sense to you but I mean it".