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Cosi by Louis Nowra

Directed by Gaye Poole

10 - 18 August 2007

A young, first-time director, is hired to direct a play as part of a therapeutic programme meant to keep the inmates of an asylum interested, and to “bring them out of their shells”.  Unfortunately for Lewis, Roy has decided on Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. Of course, none of the few volunteers can speak Italian, much less sing!

Cosi is a riveting metatheatrical play; that is, it contains a play within a play.
 
The play contains characters that look at the world through very different and idiosyncratic lenses.  The protagonist, Lewis, when given the task to direct a group of people with mental illnesses, has to learn to look through each of their eyes to some extent.  Playwright Nowra's use of the mental institution as setting allows Lewis to be taken on a journey out of his familiar world and into two worlds that are completely alien to him: the world of the institution and that of a Mozart opera.

The time setting for Cosi is the early 1970’s in Australia.  During this period Australasian society was polarised in its attitudes to issues such as the Vietnam War and foreign policy in general; the treatment of marginalised groups in society, such as the mentally ill; the sexual revolution and other social issues.  However, Cosi is still strongly relevant in today's society.

Cast

Zac: Stuart Dunn
Roy: Alec Forbes
Cherry: Keagan Fransch
Lewis: Richard Homan
Henry: Clive Lamdin
Julie: Antonia Lema-Trevino
Ruth: Luanne Peers
Nick: Jason Tolley
Justine: Lee Tulloch
Doug: Brendan West
Lucy: Anita Woolford