The Shoe- Horn Sonata written by John Misto is a powerful play that seeks to commemorate the endurance and heroic struggles of Australian women in the Japanese war camps during World War II. Blue Velvet a 1986 American film written and directed by David Lynch, which explores the darker underbelly of 50’s suburban life in America. Through each composer’s use of a combination of dramatic techniques, characterization and setting, our perception of the world is challenged and broadened through the artists employment of distinctively visual techniques to make meaning.

One of the main themes explored in Shoe- Horn Sonata is friendship, as Bridie and Sheila share a strong connection that develops with genuine warmth, humor, deep felt emotion and straightforward honesty. Flashbacks and memories, expressed through voice-overs are used to deepen the audiences understanding of what happened decades ago in the camps while at the same time alerting us to what has been lost at this present time.

During the television interview (Act 1, scene 7) conducted by Rick, Bridie and Sheila begin to talk about the living conditions of the POW camps and the mistreatment of the prisoners. Over Christmas time, the Japanese had allowed the Australian men to visit the nurses

“On the other side of our barbed wire fence were twenty or thirty Aussie men – as skinny as us – and wearing slouch hats. Unlike the Japs, they had hairy legs. And they were standing in rows – serenading us.”

This image reinforces for the viewer the separation between the men and the women in the war; it was the image that was created to show the division of the Australians by the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to be able to control the Australians whilst they were in the POW camps... The separation of the sexes was used to breakdown the prisoners human ability to feel and express those feelings, to dehumanize them in order to make them do the work, robot like, with no comments or rebellion, as it would lead to death.

“Unlike the Japs, they had hairy legs”
This referring to the Australian men having hairy legs suggests that the Australians were more ‘manly ‘and further alluded to a widely held view at the time that the Japanese, were inferior to white society. This provides for the audience a distinctively visual image of the plays theme because it is the key to the cultural separation, where differences in appearances as well as culture are held as reasons to go to war, both politically and culturally.

Blue Velvet is a 1986 American neo- noir film, written and directed by David Lynch. In the opening scene, the introductory credit sequence captures the essence of the film and sets the tone. An elegant cursive font fades in and out over a curtain made of blue velvet with the soft edge of the font supporting the soft swaying velvet. But the music juxtaposes this image. It is not a harsh juxtaposition as the orchestral score is very pleasing to the ear, but the composition is somewhat foreboding adding to a growing sense of mystery. We first see through a tilted camera a white picket fence and perfect red roses; an iconographic image of 50’s suburban America.

There is an edit where the film, cutting for the first time reveals the father watering the lawn – another iconic image with the mother inside drinking coffee. The atmosphere created is somewhat cozy but the doll in the center of the frame is unsettling with Lynch using the visual techniques of framing and composition to suggest that things are not all that they seem on the surface- this being one of his main themes.
Both texts express their themes and meaning through the composer’s creative use of a range of techniques, which are distinctively visual. The ranges of techniques that they embed are used effectively to put their story across in a way that will stick with you, as you challenge your perception of the world.