The Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto has five main themes or concerns. They are; History and Memory, Power and Control, Heroism and Relationships and War and Atrocities. John Misto explores all these ideas while telling the story of Bridie and Shelia's reunion fifty years after they last saw each other.
The play is about the histories of the women and the nurses that were captive of the Japanese during World War Two; their individual histories and joint suffering. The stories of these women were never made official and there is no government recognition of their plight and few, if any, official records. These painful memories are not part of any official' history and this is made clear in the play. "The British didn't want anyone to know about us. They'd have lost prestige if people found out how women of the Empire had lived in the war. So for the sake for King and Country, they burned out diaries. Every last one." Shelia, Scene Thirteen.
Misto makes it clear in the course of......
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Approximate Word Count: 1322
Approximate Pages: 6 (260 words per double-spaced page) |