In John Misto’s play ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonata’ (1996) and the poem ‘The Send-Off’ written by Wilfred Owen distinctively visual techniques are used to explore past experiences of war and individuals and society’s perceptions. These concepts are conveyed and explored through the use of distinctively visual techniques such as visual and aural imagery, stage directions and dialoged. In ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonta’ distinctly visual techniques are used to highlight past experiences of World War II and provide distinct visuals of the unjust acts committed against nurses.
Through the use of powerful dialogue, and engaging dramatic techniques, Misto explores their testimonies of the untold story of hundreds and thousands of vulnerable nurses imprisoned by the Japanese in South East Asia. Misto features the play through interlocking the recounts and flashbacks of Bridie, an Australian army nurse and Sheila a young English girl both of who were captured and sent to prisoner of war camps under the Japanese authority. The failure of the military and government authorities, as well as the will to survive, the revelation of truth and the power of friendship are outlined in this drama.On the other hand, the poem ‘The Send- Off’ written by Wilfred Owen was set in World War I and is about the departure of soldiers to war.
This poem is similar to The Shoe-Horn Sonata as it reflects a shameful image of the operation of war as ‘too few’ will return. Through the use of visual and aural imagery, Owen is able to depict the excited and anxious anticipation of the soldiers at the beginning of the poem through the use of the oxymoron ‘faces grimly gay’. Through the use of juxtaposition, Owen portrays society’s disapproval of sending men off to war to their pointless death; “so secretly, like wrongs hushed up”Set in the present, the play ‘The Shoe Horn Sonata’ consists of fourteen scenes. Misto uses juxtaposition as the dialogue consists of both private and public conversations, which create powerful links between the public and private voices and emotions between the two characters.
The action cuts between two settings: a television studio and a Melbourne motel room. The opening scene shows Bridie re-enacting the kowtow, a tribute to the emperor of Japan. [Bridie stands in a spotlight.She bows stiffly from the waist, and remains in this position.
] Stage directions allow the readers to visualize exactly how the composer wants it to be performed. The reader is then able to share their experiences, and a connection to the character. Misto uses photographic images, projected on a screen behind Bridie to support the dialogue. [On the screen behind Bridie are projected several 1940 posters for the Women’s Army.
These are followed by photographs of the Australian army nurses disembarking in Singapore].This allows the reader to visualize the play, and creates an emotional impact and attachment, reminding them that although the play is fiction it is based of real stories and real people who suffered in this way. Owen opens his poem ‘the Send-Off’ with a powerful visual line illustrating the soldiers to be singing happily, heading to defend their country. ‘Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way to the siding-shed’.
This opening line displays the juxtaposition present in the happy soldiers and the ‘close, darkening lanes’ which reflect the soldiers being sent to their death.The reader is then able to understand that Owen points out that these soldiers did not get the recognition they deserved, just like Misto’s play ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonata’. Personification is used through out the third stanza, ‘Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp winked to the guard” to convey the conspiracy of the country distancing and detaching itself from the departing soldiers. He has used clever language to portray the light, which seems to see everything, and is all too familiar with the process of sending soldiers to war knowing their fates before the soldiers do.
As well as images, Misto uses excerpts from songs from the period Bride and Sheila were in captivity using orchestral items such as ‘The Blue Danube Waltz’ and “Danny Boy’. Music plays an important role in the play; with the title itself having a hidden meaning with a sonata being a piece for two musical instruments, or voices representing instruments. The partnership between Bridie and Sheila constitutes a sonata with their music symbolizing hope and joy with the objective of bringing happiness to the other prisoners.They sang when they were in the huts at night, or digging graves ‘So the camp would know there was still music left’.
Symbolism is used to show they are still clinging on to life, just as the shoehorn is a symbol of their strength and will. The beat of the shoehorn is still there, canvassing the strength of their beliefs and their lasting courage. They supported each other throughout their time in captivity, but lose contact after their release. In Act one, Scene three the audience’s attention is captured with the distinctively visual dialogue spoken by Sheila.
For a while nothing happened. Just the roar of the sea – and us, ghostly white on deck. ’ The dialogue encompasses the use of light to put emphasis on an idea or to create a mood. Misto uses spotlights to emphasize the drama of what is happening on stage.
[Both of them are isolated in spotlights]. Where as Owen reinforces the negative tone of the poem by using words such as ‘not ours’ and ‘never’ this showing how their country rejected their soldiers. The line ‘So secretly, like wrongs hushed up, they went. They were not ours: we never heard to which front these were sent.
symbolizes and places further emphasis on the nation’s shame of the send-off of the soldiers to their pointless deaths and the lack of connection with them. Owen places a rhetorical question, which highlights the difference from The Send Off and the return.It focuses on what is missing, and depicts what is like for the returning soldiers. ‘Shall they return to beatings of great bells in wild trainloads? ’ He frequently refers to the soldiers as ‘they’ separating the responders from the soldiers enforcing the lack of personal connection.
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells’ the repetition of ‘few’ conveys the sad regret of losing too many lives and for the ones who return shall not be celebrated about but rather ‘creep back’ to an unknown society Both of these texts depict experiences that did not receive commemoration for the struggles they endured. Through the use of distinctively visual techniques the audience are able to travel back and develop a sense of connection to the experiences of war and realize the horrific circumstance that were once forgotten and swept under the mat.
