One of the highlights of this year’s drama festival is Cosi. Cosi is set in Melbourne, 1971, being first performed at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, 1992. It features numerous characters, all having unique personalities, which Lewis quickly discovers. Henry, Cherry, Julie, Doug, Zac and Ruth are all from the Psych wards and are involved in creating a so called opera. Working with these people allows Lewis to value love and become emotionally involved, discovering a new side of himself. Lewis has to be innovative and creative in order for the opera to be a success, dealing with an abundant amount of interruptions and problems along this road, which allows him to become more tolerant.
There are many underpinning themes of the play, one of the most highlighted ones is that the mentally ill people are dehumanized in today’s society. This theme is very relevant to modern day …show more content…
The first instance can be seen during Act 1, Scene 4 when Nick and Lewis are discussing about the patients and how they are such a pain to work with as they are not cooperative and choose to disrupt the others. Nick says (to Lewis): “Not only are they nuts, but they’re right wing nuts.” The reference Nick is trying to say to Lewis is that not only are they difficult and stupid but they have no idea what they’re doing and continue to frustrate everyone. Calling the mentally ill nuts is one of many examples Nowra uses to dehumanize the mentally ill, illustrating them to be nuts, a stereotypical food which is used to represent people as dumb. Although the play is set back in 1971 the theme is still very relevant to today’s society, continuously people still feel like the mentally ill are aliens, consequently not associating themselves with them, feeling like they have nothing to do with them. It’s not their fault that they are like this and they need as much assistance as they can
There are many underpinning themes of the play, one of the most highlighted ones is that the mentally ill people are dehumanized in today’s society. This theme is very relevant to modern day …show more content…
The first instance can be seen during Act 1, Scene 4 when Nick and Lewis are discussing about the patients and how they are such a pain to work with as they are not cooperative and choose to disrupt the others. Nick says (to Lewis): “Not only are they nuts, but they’re right wing nuts.” The reference Nick is trying to say to Lewis is that not only are they difficult and stupid but they have no idea what they’re doing and continue to frustrate everyone. Calling the mentally ill nuts is one of many examples Nowra uses to dehumanize the mentally ill, illustrating them to be nuts, a stereotypical food which is used to represent people as dumb. Although the play is set back in 1971 the theme is still very relevant to today’s society, continuously people still feel like the mentally ill are aliens, consequently not associating themselves with them, feeling like they have nothing to do with them. It’s not their fault that they are like this and they need as much assistance as they can