“Powerful drama is as much about visual spectacle as about dialogue.”  In what ways does Nowra make powerful use of the visual elements of his play ‘Cosi’?

Nowra uses the visual elements in his play in different methods, and at the same time in a very influential way. For example, in the scene where Henry ‘grabs Nick into a bear hug’, the audience is shocked to see him being so violent when he was ‘sitting obediently’ and ‘carrying his paralysed arm as if it were in an invisible sling’ in the first scene. This surprising contrast shocks the audience to an extent where it makes us feel rather uneasy, as it was so unexpected. Due to this, the visual actions has the effect of bringing a shift on the play’s atmosphere, from what seemed to be a comedy to a very serious one. By having this tense atmosphere, Nowra is able to deliver the issues of war, mental illness and love in a way that has an impact on the audience and lingers on their minds, a little different from the methods taken earlier on.

Moreover, the dramatic actions also pay a role in showing the development of the characters in the play. In the case of Henry, not only we are able to see his physical capability, but we are also able to infer his pride of his family that brings him to these actions. Therefore, although we are shocked by the sudden aggressiveness of  Henry, we also feel a sense of empathy to him which is surprising for us. From this, we can notice how Henry’s character has changed inside us from his dramatic actions that he took. We also see the development of Lewis in the scene of dramatic movement. In the last part of act one scene four, although he is facing the risk to be also attacked by Henry, he takes the situation in a very brave manner, by ‘jumping in front of Henry.’ This seems to contrast Nick’s action as he ‘goes to leave’ earlier on, and leaves us with a better impression of him when we did not use  to consider him as a very good director.

Another element is the visual incongruence that can be implied from the stage directions. Throughout the play, we can observe Cherry forcing Lewis to eat something or agree with her. Although we normally often show more hesitation against these forceful actions, Lewis is following her ‘obediently.’ From these range of actions, we can see how Lewis is almost afraid to resist what Cherry does to him. This breaks the stereotypical image of the mentally ill being controlled by someone who is not, and it actually introduces the scenes where the opposite occurs. The scenes are not just humorous, but we see them as a situation that we often see in our daily lives, mentally ill or not. For a moment, we forget that Cherry is a patient of a mental institution and see her as just an ordinary, strong-willed woman who is sure to win Lewis’s heart.

From this, we can conclude that the visual spectacles that Nowra has put in to his play Cosi makes it far more engaging, and changes the characters into ones that are much more significant and at the same time, very human-like.