Jack Davis uses many dramatic conventions in his play, Honey Spot. The three main devices focused on in this essay are the interlude, tension and dramatic irony. The interlude informs the audience about what is happening without any dialogue. Tension is created by language or dialogue or by actions. Dramatic Irony is a strange or unusual coincidence. Normally the character in the play would not be aware of the coincidence, but the audience is. In this paragraph I will be explaining and providing examples of interlude from the book Honey Spot.
Jack Davis provides four interludes in which he explains what is happening, where the actors should stand on stage, what they will be wearing and if sound effects or props are needed. A good example of this is on page 28, Jack Davis quotes music is playing, in the Winnalli’s house. After Jack Davis states this he then provides you with evidence of movement to be portrayed by actors, and records that William will come into the room, as well as his Mother holding on to a bag of clothes.
In this play, without even knowing who the Mother is, you instantly know. From when Jack Davis makes the obvious and brilliant statement of saying that she is carrying a bag of clothes. This makes it obvious that she is providing and taking care of her two other family members William, her nephew and Tim her own son. In this paragraph I will be explaining and providing examples of Tension from the book Honey Spot. Jack Davis uses tension in a way of representing fear or unhappiness towards one another, which soon becomes an argument.
The Term Paper on Investigation – No Sugar By Jack Davis
Jack Davis is a renowned Indigenous man, famous for his playwriting, acting, poetry and Aboriginal activism. Born in Perth in 1917, Davis, The fourth child in a family of eleven, spent his upbringing in Yarloop and the Moore River Native Settlement, located approximately 96 kilometres South of his birthplace. His mother was taken from her tribe in Broome and raised by a white family; his father, ...
A prime example of this is on page 9, Jack Davis identifies that a bee has flown out of Peggy’s bag, bringing attention to her Father that she is storing honey inside. Tension, is a key example on this page as for it obvious, how Jack Davis wants The Ranger to approach this, which from perspective is identified in a disappointed and frustrated mood. Another example of Tension is on page 53, when Tim becomes frustrated as well as aggravated since he has no idea how to perform a ballet sequence in the style of Swan Lake.
Tim then takes his anger out on his friend who is only trying to teach him in an easy way, so he will be able to help her when she has to perform in front of everybody. In Peggy’s view, you could imagine that she is trying to make it easy and go slowly through it so her friend; Tim will learn to pick it up in time for the performance. In this paragraph I will be explaining and providing examples of Dramatic Irony from the book Honey Spot. Jack Davis uses Dramatic Irony in a form of making the play different from others and to make the audience laugh on how it can become quite coincidental in the form of performance.
On page 8 there is an essential example reflecting on when a bee buzzes past the Ranger, he swipes the bee with a wild life magazine, however misses. This gives you the idea that the Ranger is not all that kind and caring to the native habitat, when he is supposed to be protecting the native instead of trying to hit and trying to kill them. Although when he missed he was side tracked from his daughter when she specifically warns him not to, which causes an argument which changes subject away from the stinger bee buzzing after the Ranger to an intense disagreement between the Ranger and daughter Peggy.
Jack Davis has written a marvellous play, in tradition of the Aboriginals living on the land and not getting off on a fair trade. This shows how the Aboriginals are watched upon more than the white people and don’t get the easiest way out of life like the white people. The dramatic conventions in which have been focussed on in this essay pay quite a large role, and if not used in this particular play, would make quite a difference in reading.
