2007<\/p>\n
Hotel Sorrento<\/p>\n
By Hannie Rayson<\/p>\n
Christine Harris and HIT Productions<\/p>\n
Her Majesty\u2019s<\/p>\n
Two Weeks with the Queen<\/p>\n
Adapted by Mary Morris<\/p>\n
from the novel by Morris Gleitzman<\/p>\n
Windmill Performing Arts<\/p>\n
Dunstan Playhouse<\/p>\n
Unspoken<\/p>\n
Written and performed by Rebecca Clarke<\/p>\n
Vitalstatistix and Performing Lines<\/p>\n
Waterside, Port Adelaide<\/p>\n
Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
The eventual fate of a successful play can often be sustained obscurity. This is true of other art forms too \u2013 but there is nothing more obscure than a play that is no longer performed. The drama of the recent past is often the most overlooked and the reasons are not surprising. There is concern that they have become dated, that the cultural mood that sustained them in their moment has now dwindled \u2013 and on the shelf they stay. So, it is interesting to see how HIT Productions\u2019 revival of Hotel<\/em> Sorrentino<\/em>, Hannie Rayson\u2019s success from 1990, now stacks up.<\/p>\n The answer is \u2013 rather well. There is something timeless, of course, about the central story of three sisters. Two of them, Meg and Pippa, are drop-ins from New York and London, the third, Hilary, is the dutiful one who stays in coastal Sorrento to look after their ageing father and raise her teenage son. The secrets, intrigues, family rivalries, clashes of ego and entitlement, all play well – especially with Celia de Burgh\u2019s fine performance as Hilary and Jane Nolan\u2019s turn as the literary lioness, Meg.<\/p>\n Also, reminding us of the lack of scrutiny of our national disposition in theatre these days, is the cultural commentary from Dick (Kevin Harrington in droll form) and his thoughtful chum Marge, nicely played by Beverly Dunn. Director Bruce Myles and producer Christine Harris have reminded us about a play with plenty still to tell us. It\u2019s a pity that on first night the cavernous stage made some of the delivery barely audible.<\/p>\n Also from the early 90s comes Two Weeks with the Queen<\/em>, Mary Morris\u2019s adaptation of Morris Gleitzman\u2019s novel for middle schoolers. It presents Colin Mudford, a boy whose brother Luke has cancer, who is shipped off to his English relatives for a break from things. The chance to petition the Queen and experts at a London hospital, however, reignites his plan to save his brother. It is only when he meets Ted, a young Welshman, and his\u00a0 partner Griff, who is terminally ill with AIDS, that Colin learns that acceptance and constancy are sometimes the only ways to help.<\/p>\n In this lively version from\u00a0 Windmill Performing Arts, director Wayne Harrison returns to a work he premiered in 1992. With Mark Thompson\u2019s jaunty set decorated with cartoonish images of Sydney and London and sumptuous lighting from Nigel Levings, the cast of seven present a cavalcade of characters, many toppling into caricature, as Harrison juggles the seriousness of the play\u2019s themes of death and dying with the hectic antics that dominate the production. Kristian Schmid is triumphantly\u00a0 comic as the nerdy cousin Alistair, but it is the thoughtful performance as Colin, from the talented Xavier Samuel, that carries the show. Unsentimental, precise and convincing in the role, he provides the X- factor that this slightly time-wearied production needs.<\/p>\n Also with a sibling theme is Unspoken<\/em>, a solo work written and performed by Rebecca Clarke. In a subtly crafted narrative she describes her reaction to the \u00a0birth of her much younger brother Julian, who suffers from congenital \u00a0brain and motor injury. While it is not simply biographical, Unspoken<\/em> explores some taboo territory as Clarke confides her reactions to the challenges of brothers and boyfriends, family and freedom – \u00a0and her eventual return to a steadier self. Rebecca Clarke has made an exceptional debut here. Unspoken<\/em> says much that we rarely hear and, in this production directed by Wayne Blair and Teresa Bell, it is beautifully written and realized.<\/p>\n \u201cPlenty to tell us\u201d The Adelaide Review, No.296, July 14, 2006, p.14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2007 Hotel Sorrento By Hannie Rayson Christine Harris and HIT Productions Her Majesty\u2019s Two Weeks with the Queen Adapted by Mary Morris from the novel by Morris Gleitzman Windmill Performing Arts Dunstan Playhouse Unspoken Written and performed by Rebecca Clarke Vitalstatistix and Performing Lines Waterside, Port Adelaide Murray Bramwell The eventual fate of a successful play can often be sustained obscurity. This is true of other art forms too \u2013 but there is nothing more obscure than a play that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-australian-texts","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}