Cosi

1
Cosi

• Themes in Louis Nowras play

2
Considerations

• Synonyms
• Key scenes/Quotes
• Differing Perspectives
• Contention/Perspective of play

3
Madness

• SYNONYMS
• insanity
• craziness
• extraordinary
• lunacy
• abnormal
• mental
• illness
• deranged

• SYNONYMS
• absurd
• psychosis
• psychotic
• obsessive personality
• schizophrenic
• paranoid
• unstable
• sensitive issue

4
Madness
RUTH Obsessive personality, routine, perfection.
Physically, mentally, emotionally abused
DOUG Pyromaniac, Burnt mothers house and cats
HENRY Loss of wife, Loss of job, depression
CHERRY Violent tendencies, lack of self-esteem
ASYLUM
JULIE Drug addiction - heroin, parents admitted
her into institution
ZAC Addiction to prescription medication
ROY Delusional, abandonment
COMMON THEME IN MADNESS Avoiding/Escaping
Reality, no support, confined
5
Madness

• Mozart is about love, not madness p.59
• Why cant I ever say no? Just Leave? Theyre
  mad, its madness p.16
• Barricades and bombs? Why not? p.17
• They want to overthrow the establishment p.17
• A madman is someone who arrives at a fancy dress
  party in the Emperors New Clothes p.7
• Not only they are nuts, but they are right-wing
  nuts p.47

6
Madness

• You can always find loneliness in a marriage but
  never solitude p.19
• I didnt know he had been released from a closed
  ward p.5
• Sometimes a vision is destroyed . . . as far
  removed from this depressive asylum p.63
• they are normal people who have done
  extraordinary things, thought extraordinary
  thoughts p.5

7
Madness

• Im not from a ward, Im the director p.2
• Its not divine madness . . . madness is just
  madness p.61
• I knew she had gone mad but she was still my
  grandmother p.32
• I cant stand real things if I could put up
  with reality, I wouldnt be in here p.62
• The drugs are a rocket to the starsp.32

8
Madness

• Drugs make me feel sort of living p.37
• I can handle something being an illusion or
  real, but not at the same time p.26
• I can live with the illusion as long as I know
  its an illusion p.26
• Only mad people in this day and age would do
  work about love and infidelity p.41
• Theyre coming to take me away. Ha ha. To the
  funny farm p.77 (SARCASM)

9
Madness

• Mad actors are bad enough, but madmen . . .
  p.1
• A psychopath is too kind a word to describe him
  p.9
• Just between you and me, Ive got a flick knife
  p.34
• Julies a looney and a junkie p.76
• Youre screwing a mental patient p.72

10
Madness

• Doug starts a fire in the toilets
• Cherry feeding Lewis
• Zacs overdose on medication
• Lewis hitting Nick
• Shock therapy treatment
• Julies haircut experience p.37
• Cherrys Jealousy

• Dougs understanding of marriage
• Julies insights p.36-37 (self-awareness of
  herself as well as others Doug, Zac)
• Henry Act 1, Scene 4 p.46-49

11
Madness Differing Perspectives

• Social attitudes deny mentally ill patients
  their humanity, ostracising them into the
  confines of a separate institution
• Lewis initially feels insecure and frightened of
  the patients, however he comes to understand
  their stories and accepts them as thoughtful and
  ordinary people
• The theatre offers refuge to the patients from
  the institution but also offers Lewis refuge from
  the political and radical expectations placed on
  youth (educated middle-class) in the outside
  world.
• Nowra recognises that the madness of the
  patients is brought on by the desire to escape
  reality. The distinction between sanity and
  insanity is not easily defined.
• The patients are aware that they are seen in a
  negative light.

12
Madness Differing Perspectives

• Outsiders to the institutions dont know what
  its really like
• Nowra demonstrates societys view of madness in
  a stereotypical way people are
  uncomfortable/frightened he challenges this
  view by presenting the patients as having deep
  insights and serious thoughts.

13
Nowras Perspective

• Society sees the institution and those within it
  as mad, while the patients see the outside
  world as mad.
• We are all part of the same world
• Nowra challenges the audience to reconsider
  their preconceptions of madness and normality.

14
Love

• Devotion
• Affection
• Adoration
• Sex
• Passion
• Romance
• Tenderness
• Indulgence
• Fondness
• Fidelity

• Trust
• Loyalty
• Jealousy
• Commitment
• Faithfulness
• Attraction
• Physical gratification
• Convenience
• Desire
• Need/Want

15
Love

• Love is hallucinating without drugs
• Its about important things like love and
  fidelity
• You have enemies for life, but never lovers
  p.61
• Womans constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix
  p.71
• Love is not so important these days
• Only mad people in this day and age would do a
  work about love and infidelity p.41
• All I wanted was a fuck to calm me down

16
Love

• Women are Gods punishment for men playing with
  themselves
• Music is what love between humans should be
  p.61

17
Differing Perspectives on Love

• There is no distinction made between lust and
  love for many of the self-aware characters in
  the play.
• Nowra presents the patients as having a stronger
  definition of love than the sane people.
• Nowra challenges the concept of free love
  prominent in the 1970s.
• The patients show a deep capability to love
  despite being separated from society.
• There are prevailing masculine and feminine
  attitudes towards love.
• Love is an indulgence

18
Nowras perspective on Love

• Love has many complex layers and is unique and
  different. Ideas of love are directly shaped by
  the experiences individuals have of love.
• Passionate love is not necessary to be in a
  relationship
• Men often objectify women as a means to satisfy
  their physical needs.
• Lucy and Nick have the luxury of rejecting love
  because they have lived a highly privileged life
• Without love, you run the risk of remaining
  unfulfilled and unsatisfied.

19
Art

• SYNONYMS
• Escape
• Theatre
• Music
• Play
• Performance
• Production
• Opera
• Originality
• Therapy

• SYNONYMS
• Beauty
• Expression
• Story
• Creativity
• Culture
• Personality
• Individuality
• Religion
• Talent

20
Art

• This is a masterpiece. Ever since I was a child
  Ive adored it p.11
• Music is what love between humans should be
  like p.61
• Cosi Fan Tutte is an opera by Mozart. It is the
  greatest opera in the whole world p.8
• Mozart is about love not madness p.59
• There is the harmony of the spheres and that
  harmony is Mozarts music p.13

21
Art

• The music of this opera keeps the world in
  harmony p.13
• Without this opera having been composed, there
  would be just a clanging, banging, a bedlam all
  around usp.13
• Its about important things like love and
  fidelity p.70
• I like it because Im doing something. Using up
  my energy. Getting out of my ward p.36

22
Art

• Politics is the real theatre p.32
• As boring as this opera? Lets do a rock
  musical. A nude tribal lets make love not war,
  man rock opera p.15
• I cant stand real things. If I could put up
  with reality I wouldnt be here p.62
• Cosi gave me something to think about, something
  to do p.36

23
Art

• Why do you think an opera has music no one
  will have to pay attention to the words p.63
• A world that was as far removed as this
  depressing asylum as possible p.63
• Cosi offers you a chance to do something
  successful at least once in your dismal life
  p.27
• You dont understand, Lewis. Today Australia was
  changed forever. She doesnt want to see an opera
  about a few upperclass twits p.76
• I mentioned Macbeth and Roy tried to strangle
  me p.79

24
Art

• This was an experiment to bring them out of
  their shells not to allow them to wreak havoc
  p.23
• My history of love thats the world I wanted
  Cosi Fan Tutte to capture . . . But its gone,
  the music too. p.64
• Comedy is better when its real p.61
• Velvet Underground Candy says p.68 song about
  sexuality and the physicality of love.
  Foreshadows Lewis and Lucys discovery about each
  others infidelity. Life imitating art.
• burnt out theatre . . . pitch black inside p.1

25
Differing perspectives on Art

• The patients in the play use Cosi Fan Tutte as
  an escape from the mundane reality of the
  institution.
• Art is like madness in that not everybody
  understands it
• Is merely a source of entertainment
• Art is the home of dreams and desires
• Relatable - both normal and abnormal people
  can respond to it
• A chance to experience success
• A medium by which to transmit political views
  (convice others)
• Expressions of both destruction and beauty
• A means by which to express ones true self
• Energising, inspiring, challenging environment
• Open to interpretation Art imitates life.

26
Differing perspectives on Art

• Unifies people but it can also divide
• Colours life provides direction, purpose,
  questioning, motivating
• Boring if it is not understood
• Art as an illusion for happiness rather than
  face reality

27
Nowras perspective on Art

• Nowra tries to show that art, like the mental
  patients themselves, are not appreciated by
  mainstream society in Australia.
• Art has been constantly undermined, undervalued
  and ignored.
• Art is a legitimate form of alternative therapy
  as it allows patients an opportunity to be
  creative, express themselves, challenge their own
  abilities
• Allows for intellectual fulfilment and
  development.

28
Essay Questions on Art

• In many ways Cosi is about the liberating nature
  of theatre and how it unifies everyone. Discuss
  with reference to the text.

29
Reality and Illusion

• Imagination
• Delusion
• Perspective
• Perception
• Distortion
• Fantasy
• Wishful Thinking
• Understanding
• Truth
• Avoidance

• Belief
• Interpretations
• Honesty
• Realism
• Legitimate experience
• Genuine
• Simplistic
• Complicated
• Serious
• Experience

• Natural
• Exclusive
• Unique
• Changing

30
Self-Discovery