The Shoe-Horn Sonata Presentation

The Shoe-Horn Sonata Presentation

The recording of the past-

In the past history has often been delivered to society after it has gone through a system of filters, taking out all the vile, shameful and “best forgotten” parts that our governments and mainly men deem too confronting and alarming for the public to deal with.

John Misto, investigates the malleability of history and records, and how they are sometimes distorted to suit a purpose, he specifically focuses on the Australian and British Governments cover ups after the war, and Bridie and Sheila's own personal camouflage against each other.

The play provokes the reader into becoming aware, of what we all fear, at times, the real truth, the real past. Misto performs this awakening in several ways; one is the format in which the Shoe-Horn Sonata takes place, an interview. John Misto used this structure as it allows for a direct focus on Bridie and Sheila’s story and also adds credibility, as today’s society can relate to a more media driven format, thus equipping these fictional characters with a more realistic persona, you believe this history to be true, which it is.

The slides in the background act as a visual aid supporting the ladies account, this can be through having a direct relationship to what is being said at the time, or the better use of juxtaposition to give a more crucial message, for example, at the end of scene nine, where PM Curtin has just sent his message to the women of “keep smiling”, the image in the background is of his true main concern, his male soldiers.

However this could be taken another way, were there only a limited number of photographs of the women in the first place? Did the male suffering take precedence, thus only it was recorded.

Misto gives evidence to this in scene10 with Shelia’s remark after looking at some photos. “Your army wouldn’t allow them till we’d all been fattened up a bit”. Governments would not allow the public to view emaciated women and children, John Misto is trying to get across the point that the women were forgotten, they were left without image, without reflection.

Misto again uses Juxtaposition in scene 13, along with some irony. To illuminate the erasing of the women’s history and the bucket of turps thrown on for good measure, after all if there is no proof there is no past.

The Japanese had just been ransacking the ladies huts searching for diaries, destroying the records of their atrocities. And Bridie who wouldn’t normally be so wound up says; “Those diaries were our only hope. We thought if the Japs ever murdered us all, some of our scribbling might be found one day – and our families would know”.

This anxious and dejected tone used here by Misto and Bridie gives an insight to the viewer, allowing us to recognise how hard these women tried in desperation to have themselves remembered, for what they had suffered, for their country. The account of the Japanese destruction of the diaries is juxtaposed to the next, where ironically the British, whom the women were surviving for, asked to have the diaries and never gave them back, never gave them proof of their past and Sheila sums it up in one statement, “The British didn’t want anyone to know about us”.

By having these two stories next to each other Misto opens our eyes and we realise that the Japanese weren’t the only ones with their hands on the giant broom, sweeping the unwanted parts of history