Shoe-Horn Sonata tells of friendship and survival
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
In 1942, 65 Australian Army nurses were trapped in Singapore when the Japanese invaded. They were the first Australian women to serve in battle...and the first to die. The Shoe-Horn Sonata, featuring Belinda Giblin and Maggie Kirkpatrick, is a play about those women and in particular, the enduring friendship of two of them, Sheila and Bridie.
The play is set in 1995 where Sheila and Bridie
are reunited for the first time, 50 years after the end of the War, for the
filming of a television documentary. Woven into their half century of
separation are a shoe-horn, a terrible secret and incredible loyalty and love
which form their unlikely friendship.
On one level The Shoe-Horn Sonata is
about incarceration by the Japanese following the fall of Singapore and the
brutality and hardship these women endured. However, as the play develops, we
discover more about Sheila and Bridie and we realise that this reunion is
essential if their emotional wounds are to be healed.
Writer John Misto brings their story to life in
this wonderfully funny and touching play, which has been performed throughout
Australia and in London. Misto is a multi-award winning playwright and screenwriter. The
Shoe-Horn Sonata won the 1996 NSW Premier’s Award for Best Play and the
‘Australia Remembers’ National Play Competition.
Misto’s television work includes Heroes’ Mountain – The Rescue of Stuart
Diver, The Day of the Roses, and The Damnation of Harvey McHugh. His
debut novel The Devil’s Companions was published in 2005 to rave reviews.
Stars of The-Horn
Sonata Maggie Kirkpatrick and Belinda Giblin
are two of Australia’s best-known performers. Kirkpatrick created one of
Australia's most memorable drama characters in Australian television history as
‘the Freak’ in Prisoner. Her career spans over 35 years in theatre, television and
film. Giblin has had a prolific stage
and screen career, her most memorable theatrical performances including Wicked Sisters, The Vagina Monologues and Steaming.