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Review: Allison Browning
HOTEL Sorrento is one of those plays where the
characters are comfortably familiar, allowing the audience to
feel at ease instantly and be taken on a journey into the everyday
lives of a middle-class Australian family, which could well be
your own.
Class Act Theatre, under the direction of Jenny Davis, has assembled
a fiercely strong cast to perform the audience favourite, Hotel
Sorrento.
Novelist, Meg (Angelique Malcolm), has been living with her toffy
but endearing husband, Edwin, in the UK for the past ten years.
Younger sister, Pippa (Alinta Carroll), has successfully forged
a career in New York, recently returning home for business while
their other sister, Hilary (Shirley Van Sanden), has stayed in
quiet Sorrento to care for Dad and the family home.
Publicity is rife after Meg's recently released novel is up for
an award and the Sorrento locals are chin wagging about the prospect
that the novel is not entirely fictional.
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After a rather large faux pas in
an interview with the English press, Meg returns home with Edwin
in tow to a chilly welcome from the family.
The family then spend the play struggling to deal with loss and
confrontation, each wrestling with the issues that Meg's book
has raised in their own way.
Yet, it is the curious locals who bring this family back in touch
with what is important. Skeletons are pulled out of the closet
and an average family attempts to mend itself.
Perhaps the play succeeds so well because Rayson focuses on the
average Australian family leading a familiar Australian life.
Her characters could be any one of our friends or relatives. We
each know a Wal or Hilary.
The danger is that, given the familiarity of the characters and
the story, it is all too easy to forget that this is theatre and
there must be enough pace and crescendo to keep the audience enchanted
with a simple but engaging story.
In a world where the big screen is the Mecca for entertainment
followers, it is difficult to compete on the same scale in the
humble realm of theatre, so it must provide something different
for its audience.
Davis has directed with a filmic quality, but loses her audience
along the way, with one audience member dozing off in the third
row.
While this production oozes talent, and a realistic approach,
it struggles to offer more to capture its audience and to truly
affect them emotionally.
Hotel Sorrento, Rechabites Hall, Presented by Class Act
Theatre
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