Written by Hannie
Rayson
Directed by Denny
Lawrence
Christine Harris and
HIT Productions
The Q Theatre,
Queanbeyan to 21 July
Reviewed by Len Power
18 July 2018
Hotel Sorrento was first performed in 1990 by the Playbox
Theatre Company at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. Since then the play has had many productions
throughout Australia and overseas and it was filmed in 1995.
The play focusses on three sisters who grew up in the
seaside resort of Sorrento, Victoria.
Hilary has stayed home to care for their elderly father and her son
while Pippa has been living in New York and Meg has moved to London. When they are all reunited at the family home
in Sorrento, uncomfortable issues from the past are raised.
The first half of the play provides the detail of the family
members’ past and sets the mood of a leisurely existence in a seaside
town. Life here is both comfortable and
restricting. Writer, Hannie Rayson,
provides the actors with nicely realistic Australian characters but the first
act seems overlong. Being played almost
cinematically in small scenes, jumping around between three major set pieces, it’s
hard to maintain any feeling of involvement with the characters.
In the second act when revelations about the family come
out, the play totters on the edge of soap opera. Characters have conversations in situations
that seem contrived and lack realism.
Director, Denny Lawrence, has obtained good, in-depth
performances from his cast of eight.
Ruth Caro was particularly effective as Hilary and there were especially
fine performances by Mike Smith as the journalist, Dick, Kim Denman as Meg and
Saxon Gray as the son, Troy. Lawrence
made it flow reasonably well from one scene to the next, but the lunch scene at
the dinner table looked too stagey with everyone sitting behind or to the side
of the table.
The set for the production was designed by Adrienne Chisholm
and was quite substantial for a touring production. It was functional but without any striking design
elements.
Hotel Sorrento has been a popular play over the years but
maybe its style and themes are now too familiar from similar plays and movies.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast in his ‘On Stage’ performing arts radio program on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 3.30pm on Artsound FM 92.7.