THE SHOE-HORN SONATA

 

 

The Shoe-Horn Sonata.

Writer John Misto. Director Lexi Sekuless. Sound Designer and Composer: Leisa Keen Production Designer: Annette Sharpe. Lighting Designer: Jennifer Wright. Production Stage Manager: Katerina Smalley. Production Photography and Film: Daniel Abroguena. Interviewer voice: Timmy Sekuless Set Construction: Simon Grist. Publicity Photographer: Robert Coppa. Publicity Hair and Makeup: Vicky Hayes. Producer: Lexi Sekuless Productions. Major partner: Elite Event Technology.   Mill Theatre, Building 3.3, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick. April 10 – 27. Bookings: Tickets $40 to $50, from Humanitix. 2024

 Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Andrea Close as Bridie and Zsuzsi Soboslay as Sheila
in Lexi Sekuless's production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata

As the war in the Pacific was drawing to a close, the Japanese released survivors from the dreaded Belalau Camp in the dense jungle of Sumatra. They left behind the dying and the dead women who had been imprisoned in brutal and inhumane conditions since the fall of Singapore in 1942. It is a dark and terrifying chapter in the history of Japanese occupation and a shameful record of the failure of allied governments, Australian and British to acknowledge and publicly recognize the atrocities enacted upon their citizens.

In 1995, award winning playwright John Misto drew upon personal accounts of the suffering, the courage and the survival of those women who were released to write a moving and authentic account of the experiences. The Shoe-Horn Sonata is Misto’s memorial to those who did not survive and tribute to those who did. The play has become an Australian classic, performed countless times across the country sometimes in the face of controversy, and often to great acclaim. Lexi Sekuless Productions continues to champion the revival of Australian classics with previous productions of Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Nick Enright’s Good Works. With The Shoe Horn Sonata, Sekuless presents a powerful. moving and faithful revival of Misto’s homage to the female victims   of Japanese occupation.

The play is set in 1995 in a TV studio and a hotel room. Annette Sharpe’s eclectic design of memorabilia includes a large Japanese flag, a poster of Kitchener from the First World War, television monitors and the bed in the hotel room. It is functional, unostentatious and unobtrusive. Two survivors of the Belalau Camp have been invited to take part in a documentary about their time in the prison camp. Chatswood born and bred Bridie Cartwright (Andrea Close) is a tough, outspoken, straight-talking former Australian Army nurse. Sheila Edwards (Zsuzsi Soboslay) was a 15 year old British schoolgirl at the time of her incarceration and at the time of the documentary works as a librarian in Perth. It comes as a shock to Bridie who thought that Sheila had returned to England after the emancipation. Their surprise reunion after fifty years unearths tensions and secrets as they face their interviewer Rick (the voice of Tim Sekuless). In the hotel room accusations fly. The difference in the two women fuels the tensions as each struggles to reconcile their past close and interdependent relationship with the present impact of a fifty year separation. Sekuless directs the shifting relationship and revelations from the live interview to the televised appearances to the hotel room with gripping clarity and superb pacing. Misto’s dialogue has the authenticity and intensity of verbatim theatre. Each performer embraces character and circumstance with an honesty that makes their performance riveting.

Under Sekuless’s direction Close and Soboslay give two of the finest performances that I have seen from both actors. Close’s Bridie presents a matter-of-fact Aussie with a distinctive nasal twang and a no-nonsense get-on with life attitude. She appears to no longer carry the pain and horror of her wartime experience in the telling of her experience.   Soboslay’s Sheila conceals a painful secret within her prim and proper personality. The scars remain and Soboslay’s performance tears at the heartstrings. Extrovert and introvert struggle to exorcise the past to reconcile their present relationship. Director and actors do more than take the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions. They reassure us that survival is a communal act.  Close and Soboslay’s performances will last long in the memory after leaving the theatre.

It can often be a cliché to say a piece of theatre is not to be missed. In this instance it is imperative that Misto’s The Shoehorn Sonata plays to packed houses over its all too short season. This is not only because of its importance in righting the historical wrong of political indifference but also because of the opportunity to see a production of The Shoe-Horn Sonata that is uplifting and unforgettable.