Australia in the 1970’s An Introduction to the social context of Cosi

What do we know about Australia in the 1970s?  Class brainstorm

The political and social unrest of the 1960’s carried over into the 1970’s. This mirrored social movement throughout other Western countries. Widespread protest against Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war led to the removal of troops in (Show clips) Prime Minister Gough Whitlam instituted a range of Government reform in his three year tenure. In 1975 he was controversially dismissed. The women’s rights, indigenous rights and environmental movements all made progress in the 1970’s. The decade in context:

American and British influences The Australian identity has continually evolved from over the decade, from that of a white British colony, to a diverse global culture. In 1973, American dominance of the Australian music industry prompted the introduction of local content quotas on radio. Government assistance led to a resurgence of the Australian film industry in the 1970s Australian television was saturated with American programs in the 1970s, but local content steadily improved in quality and quantity. Australian sport held fast to its British roots for many years, but has recently adopted the glitzy presentation and TV-friendly conventions of American sport.

An introduction to the play within a play- Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte  Throughout the play the characters are engaged in putting on a performance of Mozart’s opera Cosi Fan Tutte.  The title of this play roughly translates into “Women are like that”  It is incredibly important that Nowra elected to include this opera as his play within a play.  It reveals the hidden motives of Cosi’s characters and the underlying concerns of the play.  So it is important to understand what the opera is about to give some context to our text.  psis.aspx?id=119

The Music of the Spheres  Cosi clip.

An introduction to the play Cosi  Louis Nowra wrote the play Cosi  It was first performed in 1992  It is set in 1971 Melbourne  The play is semi-autobiographical (Nowra based the play on some of his own experiences working in a mental asylum)  As a class read through The Age Cosi sheet.  &intversion=251

In Nowra’s own words (from the introduction of the play)  “Madness both frightened and attracted me” (p.xvi)  “This (looking at the time the play is set in) was 1971 and the era of R.D. Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist whose view of madness was oddly reassuring in a decade going crazy. One of his ideas was that labelling people mad was to stigmatise them, and that many mentally ill people should be allowed to go totally mad- once at rock bottom they would find themselves again” (p.xvi)  “This was also the era when chemicals began to control many of the wilder excesses of madmen” (p.xvi)