Hotel Sorrento, Canberra Rep, Theatre 3, 28 Apr-14 May 2022

 

"Hotel Sorrento" tells the story of three sisters split up by traumatic personal history to the three ends of the earth, reunited under tense circumstances when the frenzy over the novel one wrote drawing on their mutual past brings up plaudits and tensions. It's written in a filmic style, flitting between multiple locations over a series of short scenes, with extensive quotations from the book and articles about the book in the script, and it would be easy for a production to feel static or dry.

Largely Alexandra Pelvin's production avoids those traps- both from using the width of Rep's stage to compare and contrast the characters in their seperate spaces, and from keeping the characters active while they debate, discuss and commiserate on themes like Australian Identity, Familial Loyalty and Modern Feminism. There's a beating pulse as the three sisters deal with themselves and those around them, trying to find their place in the world with a mix of sarcasm and insight. 

Performances across the board are strong - Veronica Tyrell Dixon exudes decency and decorum and makes both fascinating and enthralling. Rachel Howard as stressed author Meg is witty, honest and compelling. Jess Waterhouse as powerhouse executive Pippa gives layers of someone who is clearly playing the little-sister role in her family even as the wider world sees her as a lot stronger. Elaine Noon as the contempaltive Marge is often on the recieving end of rants from other characters but still finds her own space to state her own case and find her own comfort in her place. Ryan Erlandsen as the rant-heavy Dick is, well, a bit of a dick, but we get the sense from his performance that a lot of this is covering for a career that never quite took him where he wanted it to. Saban Lloyd Berrell as patriach Wal has an endearing way with his dad-jokes and charm. Nick Dyball as the teenager Troy is inquisitive, emotionally open despite his mum and aunt's teasing, and draws us in to his own troubled story. Peter Holland finds a little bit of heart underneath the pompusness of Edwin. 

Michael Sparks' set design is a perfect beach getaway in the off-season, allowing space for the four different areas to have their own impact withot ever feeling cramped upon one another. Stephen Still's lighting design and Andrea Garcia's sound design both lend atmospherics to the show. 

This isn't a perfect evening - some of Rayson's dialogue rambles a bit and there are probably two or three too many hobbyhorses covered in the material for the show to really find its focus clearly. But it's a solid production of a mildly flawed work.