Shoehorn Sonata -Themes and concerns

The healing power of truth

Every drama takes its audience on a journey. The ending of the plays action not only gives a
sense of closure and completion, but also usually indicates what for the playwright is of
major importance.

Throughout The Shoe-Horn Sonata Bridie and Sheila have uncovered events and emotions
they have kept hidden for half a century: Sheilas desperate gesture of swapping herself for
the medicine to save Bridies life. Bridies constant but hidden terror of the guards, which is
shown when she runs from the shop when she is surrounded by the harmless Japanese-
speaking tourists.

Up to the time of the plays action, neither has been able to reveal what has shamed her so
deeply. Meeting again eventually allows them to reveal and face the nightmares that have
traumatised them since their captivity. They also have to alter some of the attitudes they held
when young.

They tell one another the truths they have been suppressing, and then give each other the
courage to reveal them to Rick and the world through the television documentary.

The ending is therefore not a false upbeat and cheerful scene to leave the audience
forgetting the horrors they have learnt about. A sonata is a musical piece for two
instruments, and during their captivity Bridie and Sheila literally and metaphorically made a
musical duo. Now their declarations of friendship and their dancing as the stage darkens
shows the audience that they have finally faced, together, the horrors that have given them
nightmares. We realise that facing these realities has made them free to live their
remaining lives at peace with one another and with themselves.

Mateship and resourcefulness

Anecdotal evidence from the memoirs of Australian prisoners-of-war suggests that they had a
higher rate of survival than other nationalities taken by the Japanese. [This is to be a theme of
the new Australian television drama, Changi,being produced in 2001 discussed in The Sydney
Morning Herald, the guide, Feb.5 to11, 2001] Their strong sense of mateship, which involved
constantly looking out for one another, is claimed to be one reason for this.

Another reason given is their can-do approach, and their resourcefulness in making the most
of whatever they had at hand. They were considered to be more independent and practical
than soldiers of other countries, not likely to wait for orders-in fact more likely to challenge
authority.

The Shoe-Horn Sonata shows that the Australian nurses and others in camp with them (but
not all) also shared these qualities. The play shows that in camp Sheila and Bridie worked
together as best mates, and their support for one another was a major reason they survived in
circumstances where many didnt. This involved enormous self-sacrifice on Sheilas part.
Their knowledge of health and best practices to maintain it without any of the resources they
were used to also helped them survive.
The power of art

The power of music to lift the prisoners spirits is made clear from the title of the play. The
womens amazing resourcefulness in creating an orchestra consisting entirely of human
voices-and one Shoe-Horn-has become one of the great legends of captivity. Bridie and
Sheila create their own sonata, a medley of familiar music, when the choir has been
disbanded because of deaths and weakness.

They recall the surprise and delight one Christmas when the Australian men visited and from
the outside of the barbed wire fence sang O, Come All Ye Faithful, and the womens choir
sang a carol in return.

The power of words is also made clear in the play. The women singThe Captives Hymn at
the opening of Act Two, but as they tell of their last dreadful months of captivity, they recall
the parodies of popular songs they sang in defiance of their captors:

One day I killed a Jap/Killed a Jap/I hit him on the head/ With a bloody lump of lead...

Revealing injustice

Misto has said that one purpose of his play is to show the injustices he believes have been
done to the memory of the nurses, and of the thousands of other women and children who
suffered with them. His Authors Note (p 16) makes this clear. Their compensation
afterwards was inadequate, and for fifty years no memorial was organised for them. The
bombing of ships full of women and children and the shooting of nurses and Australian
soldiers, breaking the international rules of war, was in fact what is now called a war crime.

In particular the evidence given that medicines provided by the International Red Cross lay
unused outside the camp boundaries when children as well as women like Sheila were dying
inside is a chilling reminder of the inhumanity of war.

Student activities

1. For each of the themes listed above, find one quotation from the play as an example
of the way it has been presented by Misto. Then note down one scene where this
theme is clearly presented to the audience.
2. Discuss with fellow students your own reaction to the messages the play gave you.
What other concerns of the play also make an impact on you?
3. Survival is a popular theme in modern books and television shows. What qualities are
needed for survival, according to this play?