Peter Craven, The Australian
Extract: Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Raysons [8 pages, Scroll to view]
Biography: Playwright Hannie Rayson
Hannie is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from La Trobe University. Hannie was a co-founder of TheatreWorks and has served as writerin-residence at the Mill Theatre, Playbox Theatre, La Trobe University, Monash University, VCA and New Writing North (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK). Her plays have been performed extensively around Australia and several have been produced overseas. They include Please Return to Sender, Mary, Leave it till Monday, Room to Move, Hotel Sorrento, Falling from Grace, Scenes from a Separation (cowritten with Andrew Bovell), Competitive Tenderness, Life After George, Inheritance, Two Brothers, The Glass Soldier and The Swimming Club.
Hannie’s most recent play, Extinction, was commissioned by The Manhattan Theatre Club in New York through the Alfred P Sloan Foundation. Hannie’s plays have won AWGIE, Green Room, Helpmann, NSW Premier’s Literary, Victorian Premier’s Literary and The Age Performing Arts Awards. Life After George was the first play ever to be nominated for the prestigious Miles Franklin Award. Hannie’s memoir, Hello, Beautiful! was published in February 2015, and adapted as a one-woman show, which opened at Malthouse Theatre in May 2016. She is touring the show nationally in 2017/18. Hannie also writes for newspapers and magazines and, in 1999, won the Magazine Publishers’ Society of Australia Columnist of the Year Award for her column in HQ Magazine. Her television scripts include Sloth (ABC) and she co-wrote two episodes of the award-winning series SeaChange (ABC). A feature film of Hotel Sorrento (1995) was nominated for ten AFI Awards, winning two, including Best Screenplay adaptation.
Hotel Sorrento: "This is about the way intergenerational conflict is fuelled by disagreements over social responsibility and personal entitlement." Paige Rattray (Director)
SOURCE: Sydney Theatre Company (2016) Power Plays Programme, URL: https://d2wasljt46n4no.cloudfront.net/files/Magazine/PowerPlays_program.pdf
From the Library:
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| Non-Fiction 822 RAY | Non-Fiction A822.3 RAY |
Related Links
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| Film Review (1995) | Essay by Kate Mulvany | Essay by Cate Kennedy |
- Response to Hotel Sorrento: "What goes around comes around" by Kaye Mulvany [PDF]From Cue the Chorus. The series is written by respected Australian playwrights offering insights and personal responses to the work of their peers.
- Notes: Hotel Sorrento Exploring Australian cultural identity and the cultural cringe [PDF]SOURCE: AATE (2015), "Hotel Sorrento Exploring Australian cultural identity and the cultural cringe," URL: https://static-readingaustralia-com-au.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/08/Hotel-Sorrento-Aust-identity.pdf
Related Links
- Interview transcript: "It's like having a very successful child"Hannie Rayson looks back on the writing of the play she affectionately calls the "little ripper". Article by Elissa Blake (2018, published on Audrey Journal).
- Notes from a lecture on "Hotel Sorrento," by Dr Tracey SandersSOURCE: Dr T. Sanders (2006), "Hotel Sorrento, a play by Hannie Rayson," posted on Australian Catholic University website,
https://resource.acu.edu.au/trsanders/units/aust_drama/hotel_so.html - Essay: Transformation and the Search for Truth in Hannie Rayson’s Hotel Sorrento.SOURCE: Transformation and the Search for Truth in Hannie Rayson’s Hotel Sorrento. (2016, Nov 13). Retrieved from https://graduateway.com/hotel-sorrento/
- Blog: Various posts on "Hotel Sorrento"From: Up the Creek with a pen … See "How Do You Write “Australian”? Is There Individual versus Cultural Identity…?" for cultural cringe.
- Theatre Review: Hotel SorrentoFrom Stage Diary, Brisbane.
- Theatre Review: Hannie Rayson and Genesian Theatre Examine the Cultural Cringe.Australia is not the only post-colonial country to suffer from the cultural cringe, but it is the country that led the way in its identification and recognition as a particular crises of post-colonial nations. From Lisa Thatcher (2014).
- Theatre Review: Hotel SorrentoFrom Australian Arts Review.
- Theatre Review: Hotel SorrentoFrom the Australian Arts Review, 2018.
- Theatre Review: Hotel Sorrento By Hannie Rayson.SOURCE: Wimmer, C. (2014) Review of the Genesian Theatre (NSW) production. Director Shane Bates. January 18 – February 22, 2014.
- The Book Club, Flanagan and our endemic cultural cringeSOURCE: Adelaide, D. (2014), From The Conversation, URL: https://theconversation.com/the-book-club-flanagan-and-our-endemic-cultural-cringe-33069
- Is Australia a culture-free zone?SOURCE: Bryant, N. (2014), from BBC Culture, URL: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140731-is-australia-a-culture-free-zone
- The Cultural Cringe: is is a liability to be an Australian?SOURCE: Convict Creations (2000), URL: http://www.convictcreations.com/research/culturalcringe.html
- The Cringe DwellersSOURCE: Dale, D. (2012), posted on The Sydney Morning Herald website, URL: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-cringe-dwellers-20121229-2bzvv.html
- No Worries: Bogans, cultural cringe and the great Australian anxietySOURCE:
URL: Grills, E (2014), "No Worries: Bogans, cultural cringe and the great Australian anxiety," posted on Kill Your Darlings website, https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2014/12/no-worries-bogans-cultural-cringe-great-australian-anxiety/ - Cultural Cringe [Wikipedia]SOURCE: Wikipedia (2022), Cultural Cringe, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_cringe
Videos
Interviews With Australian Authors, Ch 7: Playing with Hannie Rayson
It was while Hannie Rayson was at acting school that she realised she wanted to be a playwright. In this interview led by Tom Tilley she talks about how she began writing plays, why she became interested in the notion of Anglo Australian art and culture, and how all her characters are in some way an embodiment of herself. [Transcript available]
SOURCE: ABC Education (2021), Playing with Hannie Rayson, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, URL: https://www.abc.net.au/education/interviews-with-australian-authors-ch-7-playing-with-hannie-ray/13581806
What I Write: Hotel Sorrento
Interview with writer Hannie Rayson. A discussion of the relationship between art and personal story in 'Hotel Sorrento'. Includes comments on the Australian Cringe.
SOURCE: ABC ME (2018), posted on Clickview, Rated G, [5:10 mins], https://clickv.ie/w/4JEr
Hotel Sorrento (1994)
Available from Clickview, Rated MA15+ (restricted access)
Duration: 1:47:48 mins.
Fred Schepisi Interview: On Australian film and the Cultural Cringe
In this interview, Schepisi sat down with us to discuss Words and Pictures, his signature style, the state of the local industry, the enduring power of Jimmie Blacksmith and the need for Australians to let go of the 'Cultural Cringe', which he thought was long dead.
SOURCE: FilmQuote Compile (2014), posted on YouTube, [4:57 mins] URL: https://youtu.be/eqvMReyKB9E
Teacher Resources
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| Lesson: Australian Culture | Unit: Hannie Rayson Interview | Podcast & Transcript |