The_Shoehorn_Sonata_Speech

Good morning, students and teachers of year 12 …… High School and Distance Education Centre. My name is ….. and I am glad to stand before you today with the privilege of imparting to you just some of the parts of the play The Shoe-horn Sonata that have made the greatest visual impression on me, and I’m strongly persuaded, upon audiences Australia wide of not only the longsuffering resilience, horror, sense of humour, able forgiveness, and compassion for one another of those imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II, but also their faith and dependence upon He who is truly able. We shall never know nor shall we ever be able to comprehend the measure of suffering endured by the hundreds of thousands of women imprisoned by the Japanese in South East Asia during period of the Second World War, the largest and most violent armed conflict in our world’s history. The Shoe-horn Sonata is an Australian drama composed by the established playwright John Misto, which attempts to explore this particular element of the war; that is, the plight of those women and often children captured by the Japanese. The Shoe-horn Sonata is essentially the ‘untold story of hundreds, of thousands of women imprisoned by the Japanese’. Misto describes his purpose for writing the play as 'I do not have the power to build a memorial so I wrote a play instead.' It is his desire that the memory these women should be uplifted and commemorated with utmost credibility, a desire which is made manifest in his rich use of dramatic techniques. Highly evocative music, projected historically significant photographs, calm beckoning voice-over, intense sound effects, rich symbolism and the employment of raw Irish-Australian almost larrikin-like humour are intrinsic to the credibility of the script, making each scene both compelling and memorable. The drama is centred around two characters- Australian nurse Bridie and the Sheila, a British school girl of fifteen years who met after their ships were bombed by the Japanese in the South China Sea. While their friendship could survive the camp and captivity, it appears to the audience that it may not have survived the peace time. Fifty years on after the war they meet again as they are brought together at a reunion for the making of documentary about their wartime experiences. Over the years they have never kept in touch and now they appear weary of each other, but most shockingly they seem to be weary of renewing their friendship. From the very first instance, it becomes apparent to the audience that both Bridie and Sheila are bearers of great burdens and are bound – and in a sense, held captive- by their emotions even half a century later. Conflict is the very essence of the drama. Playwright John Misto employs various elements to enhance the audiences understanding of both the physical and emotional conflict that these women have not merely encountered but also endured. Inner is contrasted with outer conflict as the women face the truths regarding their actions taken during the wartime. These were actions which were once considered by the women to be an almost acceptable means of survival during the war, but which suddenly became an agonising shame and a humiliation during times of peace. Bridie’s “excellent” thievery and Sheila’s sacrificial immorality for the sake of the very life of her friend are such examples. The embarrassment, shame, and utter humiliation that not only these but all the women feel as a result of their past is undoubtedly the reason for not only the women hiding the truth about the past, but also it remains the reason of the governments today. The audience can gain a clear perception from the play that armed conflict - or war – indeed results in shame, and shame in concealing the truth, resulting in the further conflict as a lack of it. The latter is what we see in the relationship between Bridie and Sheila throughout the performance until the truth is finally acknowledged and harmony is restored. For fear of Bridie’s rejection of her, Sheila left her friend all those years ago in a “Singapore hospital bed” with merely a note saying I’m “off to England – and you’d [you will] send me your new address…” Bridie is still deeply hurt by the course Sheila chose and we see this as she implores, “Did you ever miss me in all that time'” Wanting only an honest answer from her friend she proceeds to accuse Sheila of lying “very unconvincingly” . It is following this out pouring of frustration which causes the situation comes to a head with Sheila slapping Bridie for her snide answer and she proclaiming, “You’re alive today because of me. And don’t you ever forget it.”Consequently Sheila in both anger and frustration at Bridie’s claim produces the shoe-horn which she has spent fifty years trying to hide “- if only I [she] could”. Stage direction plays a major role in the credibility of this scene. The vocalisation almost as dramatic as the mystery revealed with their voices varying from haunting whispers as they recall the name of “the camp which nobody talks about” – “Belalau”. Aggravated and accusing tones are adopted as Sheila begins her tale of truth – “shall we talk about it now'..Those nights. Filled with screams. As one by one the fever took them…and you got it too.” Sheila begins to mutter the words to Bridie’s favourite song, “After the ball is over- after the break of morn.” As she describes how she tried with all her might to feed, and bathe her friend in the height of her fever, but she only continued to worsen. The sound of ever nearing sound of crickets chirping pervades the retelling as Sheila continues her story of how “Our [the] shoehorn – our [the] tobacco tin – our [the] hanky - and …your [Bridie’s] rotten bloody shoehorn” was not enough to trade for the life-saving quinine tablets. How Lipstick Larry had only laughed at her trade and how she now had only herself to sell - and she did. Sheila’s countenance displays unmistakable shock and disbelief. The soundtrack of chirping crickets ceases in the air as she whispers, “No…no…” The climax of the play is met when Sheila beseeches Bridie to answer her question, “Would you have gone to the Japs for me'” Bridie’s silence leaves the audience dubious as to whether or not she would have done the same for her. It has been said that “Our most difficult task as a friend is to offer understanding even when we don't understand. ~Robert Brault and so the absence of that reassuring answer Sheila’s heart has long been yearning for compels the audience to think that perhaps she would have not done the same in return. Perhaps the most difficult task is to accept the truth. The voice of young Sheila gently comforting and pleading, “Bridie' Bridie, love – it’s me. Look – I’ve got tablets. I sold your shoe-horn. I’ve got tablets. Come on now – try and swallow them…Don’t leave me…” is what to me makes this scene so incredibly memorable. Especially as Bridie turns to face Sheila and the lights begin to fade upon the set with the little voice of Sheila singing sweetly the words, “After the ball is over/after the break of morn/after the dancers leaving/after the stars are gone/ many a heart is aching/ if you could read them all/ many the hopes that have vanished/ after the ball…” Highly descriptive language – as part of an exceedingly specific order of stage directions- is used throughout the play in order to portray the almost inconceivable horror caused by the fall of Singapore. An example of Misto’s use of descriptive language and very specific stage directions is conveyed in the scene where Sheila gives her account of the intense fear and absolute terror that the three hundred women and children felt as their ship the Giang Bee was spotted and bombed in the South China Sea. She recalls how she “woke up suddenly” to “people running everywhere” she describes “seeing them quite clearly, the deck was so bright” although the brightness on board the ship was not moonlight but rather a fixed searchlight. Its “Strong, hard beams hit [hitting] us [them] square in the face as they “lay flat on the deck and covered our [their] eyes”. She tells that the women were yelled at to – “Get up! Stand up! Let the Japanese see [that they’re] you’re just women and children” as a harsh spotlight becomes fixated upon the face of Sheila as she stands alone on stage and she continues cautiously telling of the “mothers clutched [clutching] their children and cried [crying]” while they waited for something to happen and how “for a while nothing happened”. “Just the roar of the sea- and us [them], ghostly white on the deck”. She emotively describes the horrific scene as “Women screaming and running about – and [with] some lay [laying] groaning and being trodden on” and her final memories of the ship “crash [crashed] on its side…lay [laying] there like a wounded animal, spilling oil instead of blood” taking “less than a minute for the Giang Bee to sink” as she splashed around helplessly in the sea. Body language is used extensively to visually demonstrate the vulnerability and terror of these women during the period of their capture and imprisonment. It also shows the audience that such vulnerability and fear is still just as real for them now as it was then- even half a century later. Playwright John Misto uses the play to highlight fragments of history which are little known. Significant details such as the Australian Army Nurses being taken prisoner and deprived of basic comforts and freedoms, subject to beatings, deprived of food, and basic medical supplies. In addition to these appalling conditions they were forced to endure humiliation; for example, the women were forced to go to the toilet in public – in complete view of glaring Japanese guards. Misto employs a combination of various dramatic techniques which allows the audience to travel back, in their minds, in time with these women. The women’s recount of the tale of their encounter with Lipstick Larry after Sheila having carefully sown a rusty pin into his loincloth is an exemplary illustration of the cruelty of the Japanese guards in the camps. In this scene the playwright very carefully shapes the reaction of the audience to Lipstick Larry’s savage beatings. This angle is reflected through the mindful use of sound effects – “the ugly thumps of young Bridie being punched and hit” – and the high-pitched shrieks of the young but courageous fifteen-year-old school girl Sheila crying out, “Bridie! Bridie!” as her friend is being cruelly assaulted at the hands of the guards. Not only is the cruelty of their captors evident, but highlighted in this scene too is the bond that these women share. The enormity of the women’s capacity for kindness and resilience notwithstanding starvation, dull despair and undiluted terror at the hands of a totally ruthless and brutal enemy is beyond compare. In war as in life itself some of the greatest acts of bravery and kindness seemingly go unnoticed except by those whose lives were touched by their benevolence. One of the most touching recounts of human kindness in the entire play was for me the story of the Australian nurse who cared for the dysentery women and children aboard the cargo ship by converting rice pots into bedpans while their camp was being shifted by sea to – “the camp nobody talks about”- known as Belalau. Photographs of captured British and Australian women bowing to the Japanese are employed by the playwright so that they may dominate background of the stage so as to ever keep the exactingness of their captors in view of the audience. While the singing of Bridie and an unseen womens choir the words, “Father in captivity, we would lift our prayer to thee, keep us ever in thy love, grant us that daily we may prove, those who place trust in thee, more than conquers be” which pervade and haunt the minds of the audience until she contributes the further verse to her plea to the God of Heaven, “Give us patience to endure, Keep our hearts serene and pure, grant us courage, charity, Greater faith, humility. Readiness to own Thy will, Be we free or captive still” before Sheila begins to tell the testimony of a women who– as the saying goes- “Never look [looked] down on anybody unless you're [she was] helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson” The story of an Australian nurse who did not “spent [spend] the whole trip hanging off a six-inch ledge, emptying out and rinsing pans” because her sick and ailing companions couldn’t, but rather she did it simply because she could – This is true kindness. It is clear that it was Misto’s intention that the audience be educated in true kindness that is, not what she did because others couldn’t, but what she did to lighten another’s burden simply because she could. Sheila fondly relays the audience that “The nurse was pitifully thin and weak but…she held on there for hours. She kept on saying that “we [they] weren’t animals…and she’d rather die than be treated like one” she also reminisced that “It was the bravest act I’d [she’d] ever seen” and that “She [the nurse] didn’t get a medal for it but…all of us [them] loved her for that…” Sheila also goes on to relate the story of a message from the Australian Government passed on to the women – “Mr. Curtin, sends his greetings. And orders you all to keep smiling”. She describes that in the first instance there was absolute silence before the nurses finally broke out in with tears rolling down their hollowed cheeks followed by a bouts of full-bodied laughter at the irony of the situation. Why' As Sheila tells it, “They were skin and bone and covered in boils – and they’d just been told to keep smiling!” and “they smiled alright” but the audience is quickly informed they did so at a cost with all the women being lined up the following day and made to stand in the blistering sun for hours -“they ordered us [them] never to smile again”. The reaction of the women to such a letter illustrates their resilience as well as emphasising their ability to retain their sense of good humour despite in spite of their condition. Visual imagery and soundtrack are vital to the integrity of this scene as the sharp contrast of the projected male prisoners of war completely emaciated, dying and covered in boils with the cheery voice of Judy Garland singing ‘When You’re Smiling…’ accentuates the courage it took for the women to even smile as they did. A combination of rich orchestral soundtrack, Stage direction – for instance, the body gestures of both women – lighting, - in particular spotlighting, biblical referencing and imagery of celebration taking place in Australian cities all assist in creating a scene allows the audience to fathom the absolutely thrilling ambiance that existed as the women slowly came to the realization that the war was finished, and the Japanese had been defeated. Sheila and Bridie share the commission of imparting the story of their struggling climb up that final slope. “Hundreds of us [them]” with “Some on all fours – crawling through the grass” while the guards “running [ran] up and down – shrieking – and waving their bayonets, ‘Speedo, womens! Speedo!’” As Bridie finishes the story she acts out their motions by “took [taking] Sheila’s hand…and we started to pray – ‘the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me…”- both women complete the following verse together and Bridie tells what they beheld when they reached to top. “Thirty more Japs” they had never seen, “in full dress uniform” whom they assumed were “some sort of death squad” lined the hill; just as they prepared for their end to come the she hear sheila say, “Oh God, Oh, Bridie – Look! Look!” Bridie describes how in fear she rushed to the side of her friend - “So that we could die together”- for she feared her friend had seen the guns but “these Japs had trumpets- drums- clarinets- trombones. They were a band. An army brass band” On the soundtrack the Blue Danube Waltz by J. Strauss begins to play in all its grandeur, the waltz continuing on throughout the speeches that follow. This waltz Misto has chosen to express their women’s triumphant joy is especially evocative as it allows the audience to be captured in the high- spirits of the moment as these two women relive the tale of their release and truly fulfil the playwright’s purpose. This moving recollection of that final march to the top of the hill, expecting to die but instead being confronted by an orchestra while the glorious tones of the Japanese orchestra fill the sickening air of tropics is nothing less than surreal. That determination in the voice of Bridie as she takes Sheila’s hand firmly in her own declaring her conviction, “We’re going to live, I don’t care how long or what it takes, we are going to survive this war. And when it’s over, you and I will go dancing. We will. I know we will.” Projected images of Australians celebrating peace add to the exuberant mood and surreal atmosphere of scene while the blink of light before their unearthing symbolises change and the light of hope. John Misto’s ability to recreate so vividly these awe inspiring moments that made up the fictitious lives of the fiercely, proud and patriotic Sheila, and the quintessential wholesome Australian nurse, Bridie Cartwright is overwhelming. Both Bridie and Sheila are illustrations of that quintessential quality which is so lacking in our relatively peaceful world. Both Bridie and Sheila appeared to be woman of firm faith: Bridie being a strict catholic and Sheila of a proud protestant background and this is most likely the differential quality that is so absent from society today that gives these women such firm values and wholesome outlooks. John Misto portrays both women throughout the entirety of the play to be, as individuals, striving to be a steady stream of light in the moral darkness that surrounded them. Although differing in Religion both characters can be said that the hearts of these women were truly strengthened by their faith, their faith in a God who promises that “I [He] have [has] graven thee [them]” that is, their names “upon the palms of my [his] hands”, who promises them that he shall and cannot forget them anymore than a woman can forget her suckling child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb. Although they may endure tribulation he has surely not forgotten them. With no cares for their temporary lives they looked to their eternal lives, and strived to live accordance with what they knew to be right – perhaps this was the reason behind Bridie’s strict and unwavering moral judgment'- so that their names may be “Graven upon the palms of His hands”. If they could but look to eternal things trials would lose their force, and no enemy could avail to cripple their hope. Too often we underestimate the power of a song, a smile, a kind heart, a listening ear, little nameless acts of kindness and love, and the doing of a sympathetic deed when there is no promise of an immediate reward in store. All of which have the potential to unburden a weary soul and possibly preserve a life in our daily battle. While so far it may be true that “More civilians now die in war than soldiers...” and “Yet they have no equivalent of Anzac Day on which their suffering is memorised” however, I don’t quite believe it is fair to say that “They have simply been forgotten” for they have not been forgotten by all. John Misto as he repeatedly says, “I [he] had no power to build a memorial” to celebrate the lives of “the many Australian nurses who perished in the war…so I wrote a play instead” and in every minute detail of the drama I strongly believe he has accomplished his purpose. Every scene, act and gesture in the drama strikes such an overwhelming emotional resonance in the audience that it has them in laughter and tears almost simultaneously that it is indeed an absolutely remarkable tribute to the nature of the play and to the memory of the women. Women who sank not to the level of their captors, but laboured to lift one another up higher, ever higher from the utter depths of despair which furnished the camp with “nights of screaming, sobbing and quarrels”. Yes, while it is indeed true there is “no national memorial to the many Australian nurses who perished in the war” whereby their names and deeds are engraved on stone, these women of such true Christian character who sacrificed so much during this terrible period of our world’s history are beneficiary of the greatest testimonial in their honour. The strength and bravery of these women shall never be forgotten. Long after every sympathy wreath and floral tribute has withered, those upon whom they bestowed their benevolence, those with whom they had been both kindred spirits and strangers became beneficiary to the greatest memorial of all. They will surely receive the measure of their good will, for they carved not their names upon marble, but rather they graven them upon the hearts and lives of others where they shall be remembered and praised for all eternity –“For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal The 2nd Letter to the Corinthians 4:18”. The women vowed in song to display forgiveness, love, compassion and kindness- “Be we free or Captive still” . The sharing of a ration of rice – their dinner- the digging of a grave, the obtaining medicine, or even the mothering another and all such manner of little and even sometimes nameless acts of compassion are just some of the great loans of kindness paid between the captives; there is surely no greater loan than a soul sympathetic for the suffering of others. Therefore they shall surely be paid in full. For thus is the promise, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, He worketh for us a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory; ~ 2 Letter to the Corinthians 4:17” Through their very lives these women both in life and in death examples that if they did pray in faith “Father in captivity,” that “Those who place trust in thee [Him]” will assuredly “more than conquers be”.