Close study of text Cosi By Louis Nowra Notes by Mark Slocum

Break Down of the Syllabus

This module requires students to engage in a detailed analysis of a text. It develops students understanding of how the ideas, forms, and language of a text interact within the text and may aect those responding to it So where do you start? The rst thing you must do is read the text!

And again. And again. And again.

Because there is no requirement for a related material in this section your knowledge of the play and the techniques of a play script are of paramount importance. It is ok to watch the lm to gain an idea of characterisation etc but NEVER EVER refer to the lm in any of your responses. This creates confusion as to your level of understanding of the play. BEWARE - The lm has much content which is NOT in the play. The printed play is your core text.

Rubric says. . . .. 1. Explore how ideas , form and language interact to produce meaning 2. Consider the impact of the text on an audience 3. Identify the distinctive qualities of a text

So how does this translate? 1. How are ideas conveyed by the text features (ie What and How) 2. How is the audience expected to respond? (The writers intentions) 3. What makes this text unique? How are dramatic features used and combined to make this text special?

Rubric says. . . . 1. Students respond, (a) Imaginatively, (b) Analytically, (c) Critically

Which means. . . (a) (b) (c) Using your brain to interpret the text visually and orally Knowing the play and the methods of scripted Drama Being able to judge whether the text is eective or not

The Play is a Play

Dramatic techniques/features are the devices used by a playwright to convey their ideas. Therefore you must focus on analysing the ideas proposed by the play, not simply describing its dramatic features. And please, do not simply retell the story, this is not necessary at all and does not pass o as closely studying the text. Every play uses dramatic techniques dierently. They are never spoken during a show but exist in the script to give the director and the actors a guide to how the play is to appear and sound. You must decide and comment upon why Cosis use of dramatic techniques is important and eective. Learn to read the text with your ears and eyes and heart. Imagine what is being presented to you. For example, where there are directions for action/lighting SEE why they would be an eective choice to convey an idea. HEAR the sound eects and music and think WHY they are there-what message or mood are they creating?

You Must Look at the Text as a Play What is important in a play?

1. The Setting (a) The time period in which it is set gives you the social context of the play. The time period will determine beliefs and societal attitudes which are held by the characters. Always keep this in mind-the text is representative of the time in which it is set. In this case, Cosi is set in 1971, a time where issues such as sexual morality, feminism, social rebellion, youth culture, acceptance of dierence(in this case, the mentally ill) and the issue of involvement in the Vietnam War are the concerns of the day. All characters will have an opinion on these issues. (b) The locations which are chosen by the playwright are signicant. Cosi has only one location, the burnt out theatre which is in the grounds of a mental institution. This setting is symbolic of burnt out lives of the patients, but is also symbolic of a place of rebirth. The recurrent motif of the Arabian Phoenix, a colourful and beautiful mythological bird which is reborn from the ashes of its own destruction is important to remember when considering the setting. Of course, it is also a theatre! 2. Characterisation The people in the play are the vehicles by which the playwright can transfer his ideas. They use verbal and non-verbal language to respond to situations. You as the analyst of the text must consider the language and the stage actions suggested in the script. Every word and action is there for a reason and has been carefully placed there over many drafts and readings. 3. Conict Drama is all about conict. Conicting ideas, ideals, and objectives make the audience engaged with the play and interested in the outcome. In Cosi the characters each hold strong opinions about the main issues of the time. Through their created personalities Nowra creates the conicts which express opinions and ideas. Lewis, most interestingly, is in conict with himself throughout the play, and this inner turmoil drives the action in the drama. He is in the process of forming his own opinions on life, away from the inuences of the protected political atmosphere of university and his friend Nick and girlfriend Lucy. He is breaking away to become his own person with his own views and morality.

Dramatic Techniques to Consider

These are the methods through which ideas are conveyed. You must refer to them. We have already looked at setting, characterisation and conict. 3

1. Metatheatre The play within the play. A play about love and delity and patriotic war when the opinions of the time suggest that these are no longer relevant. This ironic choice sets up a point of conict which is constantly examined by many characters, and which the protagonist Lewis comes to love after initially ridiculing the opera. 2. Symbols The burnt out theatre. The ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) machine. The doctors who administer the treatment. Why are these used? 3. Motif The Arabian Phoenix, which represents Lewis disappointment with Lucy, and also is suggestive of the rebirth and renewal that each character experiences in the play. Every character in the play changes and grows- with the possible exceptions of Nick, Lucy, and Doug, 4. Stage Movement and Blocking There is denite stage action required by the text. This has a reason and a purpose and you must analyse and acknowledge this. 5. Lighting How is darkness and light, used to highlight moments and create dramatic tension and audience interest. EG-The play begins and ends in darkness. Why???? 6. Sound There are specic choices made with sound and music in this text. Most obviously there is the music of Mozart, a composer who was often considered insane and inappropriate for his time who nevertheless created music which was uplifting and other worldly. We have also the specic use of a song when Lewis is alone in the theatre, Candy Says by The Velvet Underground. This song is about an open relationship breaking up, and also speaks of the inuence of drugs in the context of love. It also speaks of wanting to break away from life, and become in control of oneself. And the melancholic tone of the tune helps to further create a mood of reection and introspection. And the song was released in 1970- totally in context. 7. Line Delivery The stage directions include specic directions for tone and emphasis of the dialogue. This deliberately limits the interpretation of lines to keep the play and its messages within control of the playwright.

How are themes and ideas represented in dramatic conict in the play? Love and Fidelity ,or Free Love?
Lewis is in conict internally with the idea of love at the start of the play as he obviously has dierent expectations of his relationship with Lucy. Later in the play he is at odds with his own delity as he is tempted by a liaison with Julie. Free love, strongly evocative of the era of the play, is a wonderful ideal, but very hard to live up to as an emotionally based human being. The patients are obviously emotionally based, and crave love. Proponents of free love in the play tend to be portrayed as rather selsh and negative in their outlook-Doug, Zac, Lucy, and Nick. All other characters in the play aspire to loving and being loved. On the theme of love, it should be noted that Doug, Ruth, Cherry, Roy, Henry are very damaged by their warped experience of love, which has been tantamount to abuse. Through all these contrasting viewpoints and clashes, Nowra leaves us with no doubt as to the importance of love. It makes this world of the play go around.

Madness and Sanity At the start of the play Lewis nds the patients confronting, but has some of his fears allayed by Justin. Lewis is again in conict with himself, and grows to accept them as human beings with specic needs and wants-all worthy of respect. The major conicts in this theme come from Lewis clashing with Nick and Lucy later in the play, culminating in the ultimate physical conict of Lewis st ght with Nick. One gets the impression that the supposedly mad people are more understanding and accepting than those who represent the sane outside world, with its extreme views on war, recreational drug use, and free love.

Illusion and Reality Throughout the play there is much evidence that those on the outside of the asylum have greater problems recognising reality than those inside. Nick and Lucy work for unsustainable political and social ideals, constantly contradicting their caring words with their cruel insensitive actions. They are self deluding. Lewis learns through the patients that the reality of love and caring is confronting but rewarding. And that the demands of the real world outside of political idealism far outweigh Lewis old world.

The Morality of War Lewis comes to us at the beginning of the play all lled with anti war rhetoric, but mainly through Henry he comes to a dierent level of respect for the soldiers who choose to ght for causes they believe in. e also has to play a soldier in the opera! Henry and Nick provide the 5

obvious character conicts that represent thee points of view. As the audience we get to hear Nicks speech at the rally, in which he hypocritically espouses violence in the quest for an end to the war, which seals our view of his contradictory rhetoric.