Cosi

Good morning students and teachers. Today I am going to be talking about the play Cosi , written by an Australian playwright Louis Nowra, and explore two key themes that are very important in the understanding of the deeper meaning in this play.

First of all a key theme in this play is madness/sanity, which is obviously evident in the text as it about a group of mentally ill patients and their contribution to Mozarts 'Cosi Fan Tutte'. We are introduced to the protagonist 'Lewis' who is a young inexperienced university student who is given the task of directing the play in a mental hospital. From auditions we are then introduced to the other characters or in other words patients. The patients make up a wide spectrum including Roy, a manic-depressive with a life passion for theatre and the oldest out of the group, Cherry, a Lewis-addicted romantic and compulsive liar with an explosive temper to all those around her, everyone except Lewis. Ruth, a middle aged woman who is obsessed with counting and distinguishing illusions and reality, Doug, a quick witted pyromaniac, Julie a pretty junkie who is very subtle, Henry , an older silent man who was previously married and was a lawyer and lastly Zac , a drugged up pianist.
Through-out the text we are exposed to the real chaos and disorganisation of the group as they are working in a burnt down theatre and are usually thrown off by the idea of the play with problems with the patients in the group. Such as Doug who at the start nearly burned down the theatre again as he lit a fire in the bathrooms. Justin who is the social worker only sees the play as a distraction for the patients as he explains they would 'come right out of their shells'. In saying this you think to yourself that the patients for example Henry, would have the confidence to participate in the play despite his extreme shyness and mental instability, or on the other hand 'coming out of their shells' could also mean we see the ugly side of the patients...