David Williamson’s The Removalists illustrates abuse of authority, corruption, violence and domestic abuse. Throughout the use of various dramatic techniques, styles, forms and conventions, both Alex Buzo and David Williamson have found ways to challenge the audience into questioning their own beliefs and ideas. Alex Buzo’s Norm and Ahmed is a play that epitomizes abuse of authority, racism and violence. Norm, as the character’s name suggests, is an average Australian – the ‘norm’. He is the typical
According to Thomas Moore, ‘it is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed’ Moore is depicting here the need for the human kind must reveal themselves in order to find their true identity, as well as that there is madness in everyone and people shouldn’t be so quick to judge. The play Cosi is set in a mental institution in 1971, in Melbourne. There are two scenes in this play that caught my eye when it came to madness and love, and there are two scenes that reinforce this immensely, they are Act 2, Scene 1, and Act 2, scene 2.. Themes that will be discussed are infidelity vs fidelity and madness. Fidelity vs infidelity is an issue depicted in the play because it is an ideal that can never be achieved.
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 play is successful because it investigates key issues of the times in an engaging and humorous way to involve the audience in 1970’s Australia. The burnt out theatre in which the patients perform the play in is symbolic in many ways.
Both ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’ by Ray Lawler and ‘The removalists’ by David Williamson have explored the different ways people cope when things change or go wrong. Both playwrights use the style of realism to portray themes which depict changing circumstances on the stage and show how different characters respond. Ray Lawler and David Williamson use the techniques of relevant idiom, staging, costume and symbolism, all conventions of realism, to explore the themes of stereotypes, the changing of traditions and violence. In the early 20th century Australia was searching for its national identity. Plays up until this point in time were traditional melodramatic English plays.
By Act 2, Nowra let the audience see the humanity in the patients using the play within the play by allowing us to see their back stories and why they are in the mental institution, testing the audiences prejudices about the mentally ill as well as the reality of mental institutions. The stereotype that all people who are patients of an asylum are ‘loonies’ and dangerously violent was dismissed to a certain extent for Doug was seen as an extreme danger to everyone and Cherry and Henry did show signs of violence. The end with Lewis pulls the audience back to reality after such a successful night by not giving the audience the happy ending that was to be expected. This sorrowful ending implies that ‘asylums are the most inefficient places on this earth.’ To conclude, Nowra’s purpose of having the play within a play in Cosi was to allow the characters of the play to give their thoughts on the themes of Cosi Fan Tutte thus giving the audience a deeper understanding of the issues such as love and fidelity, sanity and insanity and to really test the prejudices that the audience hold against the mentally ill. ‘They are normal people who have done extraordinary things, thought extraordinary
Contemporary Australian Theatre and Drama By Aimee Contemporary Australian theatre and drama refers to Australian produced theatre which challenges the conventions, forms and styles of traditional theatre in order to engage and inform the audience with the social and personal concerns of the characters on stage. Jane Harrison’s Stolen and Matt Cameron’s Ruby Moon are two plays that challenge the conventions and styles of traditional theatre. Both playwrights use the characters social and personal concerns to engage the audience, using unconventional styles of theatre to help them understand. The play Stolen by Jane Harrison tells the stories of five different Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families and affected by the
Beneath the humor in Così is a brutal depiction of society’s treatment of the mentally ill. Louis Nowra’s ‘Cosi’ is a play set in 1971 Melbourne that takes place within a mental asylum. It follows the efforts of young director Lewis Riley in directing the patients there in a performance of the Mozart opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’. Despite the classification of the play as a comedy, beneath ‘Cosi’ is a representation of the brutal treatment experienced by the mentally ill at the hands of society. Nowra employs humor as a means of connecting with audiences and as a vessel to discus difficult issues in a way that is comfortable and accessible. Comedy is also incorporated as a means of characterization and of personalizing mental illness.
“Cosi is more about love than madness” The play within a play “Cosi Fan Tutte” does more than divert patients from their isolated wards, the play itself conveys Lewis Nowra’s viewpoints upon certain issues faced in the 1800’s as well as the 1970’s. Located in a burnt out theatre, the initially anxious director “Lewis” directs a group of mental patients to perform the play Cosi Fan Tutte. Although the central theme explored throughout the play draws comparison to mental illness, the play most importantly demonstrates Nowra’s viewpoint about Love and fidelity within cosi and Cosi Fan Tutte as well as society external to the walls of the asylum. In order to illustrate his viewpoints throughout the play, Nowra uses an extensive amount of literary techniques in order to capture the reader and create and emotional response towards the themes within the play. Ultimately, Cosi fan Tutte is about madness, however the play also demonstrates the significance of love and fidelity throughout.
She also decided to give more precedence to career rather than her family which in turn created a huge gap between herself and her family. As she became obsessed with her work, she began to overlook her family. In this way, the ambition for the top, the allotment of more time for work all contributed in weakening Kate’s family relationships. In the novel, Crow Lake it was also revealed how loneliness can bring two teens together through the relationship between Matt Morrison and Marie Pye. As Mary’s brother Laurie ran way from home after the clash with their father Calvin Pye, their mother got sick.
The Bundrens have not form of civilized communication. They always end up disagreeing with each other. This has created intense barriers in their family life and has pushed away the possibility of being a normal family. In the novel, one realizes that Addie’s children resent each other and they are always competing for their mothers love. "If everybody wasn’t burning hell to get her there, with Cash all day long right under the window, hammering and sawing at that…" (6) Clearly from this statement, Jewel felt that his family was exaggerating the issue of Addie’s death.