cosi: comedy and human suffering

How does Nowra use comedy to critically reflect on human suffering?
Nowra uses comedy in conjunction with other tools, to critically evaluate human suffering. Incongruity

Louis Nowra’s typically Australian story is a play within a play following a naive uni student doing a play with ‘extraordinary people who have thought extraordinary thoughts’. Nowra uses comedy throughout the play often to reflect on human suffering and to help the audience break down preconceived conceptions. However he also combines comedy with seriousness or uses no comedy at all to convey a clear message of suffering to the audience. By using only comedy Nowra can reflect on the harm caused by love but still humanise the characters and make them likeable avoiding judgements by the reader. However by using a combination of both comedy and seriousness Nowra is able to demonstrate the depth of transformations of characters whilst still reflecting on human suffering. Ultimately Nowra uses no comedy to critically reflect on how those portrayed as normal in society is also those who can cause human suffering. Nowra uses comedy in conjunction with other tools to critically evaluate human suffering.

Nowra reflects on the damages caused by love through the mental patients but uses comedy to humanise and break down the audience’s preconceived perceptions of them. Like Lewis, Nowra assumes that the audience has had little experience with the mentally ill. He uses humour to allow the audience to understand mental illness and human suffering in a light hearted way by breaking down preconceived distinctions of ‘mad’ and ‘normal’ by society. This is evident when Doug describes burning his mother’s cats to heel their ‘unresolved conflicts’ to Lewis and how he wouldn’t be in here if it weren’t for the ‘damn cat’. Nowra uses this incongruous situation to give Doug a likeable, humorous character whilst showing his suffering from the absence of love. By using comedy in this situation it also helps the audience withhold judgement of Doug and patients in his condition by humanising them and preventing the audience from labelling him as just insane. When Ruth describes how her boyfriend locked her ‘in a cupboard’ for extended periods of time Nowra uses comedy in the bizarre situation to see her more as funny rather than pitiful allowing them to like her rather than separate her into ‘us and them’. By allowing the audience to rationally evaluate the patients human suffering whilst making the characters more relatable through humour whilst Nowra helps the audience sympathise and humanise the characters breaking down preconceived opinions of mental patients.

Nowra uses a combination of humour and seriousness to highlight the extent of transformations as well as the depth of human suffering. He shows this through how Henry evolves in the play and conveys how people and patients have the ability to change. Henry is portrayed by Nowra as completely serious in the beginning. He turns away when he is introduced to Lewis and has difficulty communicating with others through his stuttering. Nowra chooses to avoid making Henry a funny character to demonstrate the depth of his suffering in contrast to his development at the end of the play. Nowra demonstrates Henry’s complete transformation by the end of play when he sings even though he doesn’t have to ‘keep singing’ but continues as he wants to. As henry goes from barely speaking to being loud Nowra shows the audience his depth of suffering but uses comedy to reflect on his development throughout the play and how he is able to work through his suffering. Nowra does not use comedy when he introduces Lewis also being portrayed initially as a serious and separate to the patients. However as Lewis becomes attached to the asylum telling Lucy ‘they need (him)’ for the play, Nowra incorporates more comedy into his role. This is evident when Lewis tells Doug to ‘go burn a cat’ like the patients do symbolising his transformation as a character using comedy to highlight his changed perceptions of now not seeing the difference of us and them. By using seriousness and then comedy throughout Cosi Nowra highlights the transformations of characters and reflects how they can work through their suffering and problems

Nowra ultimately uses no comedy to convey a clear message on human suffering by demonstrating the damages caused by those who are ‘sane’. Initially Nowra used comedy to make the audience like the patients and to humanise them. However by avoiding using comedy with Nick and Lucy, Nowra rather demonising them and makes them unlikeable characters. He demonstrates how it’s not the patients who are necessarily bad or ‘mad’. Nick and Lucy both show little transformation and almost no attempt to accept difference. When initially negative they still didn’t accept Lewis when he told them of the importance of the play criticising him ‘they’re going to take me away ha-ha’, ‘Lewis get a grip on yourself’. It is society who judge mental patients and create that portrayal of ‘us and them’ ‘bad and good’. By using only seriousness when portraying nick and Lucy Nowra comments on how human suffering is portrayed and exaggerated for those on the inside by those on the outside.

Nowra uses comedy in combination with serious to help the audience reflect and understand human suffering avoiding preconceived perception. He helps the audience understand human suffering in a light hearted way breaking down preconceived conceptions with more severe patients like Doug. However by combining humour with seriousness Nowra allows the audience to see the transformations of characters highlighting on how patients like anyone can work through issues and suffering. Ultimately Nowra uses no comedy to ironically portray those who although aren’t institutionalised are not always the ‘good’ people and it is they who also have suffering but also causes it. Nowra uses a combination of no comedy and comedy to give a light hearted insight to the audience of mental patients critically reflecting how everyone sane and insane feels pain.