Brisbane review - Hotel Sorrento: Sensitive and Poignant

By Lilian Harrington

Production: Hotel Sorrento

Writer: Hannie Rayson

Company: Ad Astra

Director: Susan O’Toole- Cridland

Location: Pluto Theatre, Ad Astra, 210 Petrie Tce. Petrie Tce.

Season:  February 18- March 19. (Session times vary).  7.30pm /8 pm.

Bookings: try bookinghotelsorrento /  enquiries@adastracreativity.com 

Ad Astra opened its 2026 program with Hotel Sorrento, by Australian writer Hannie Rayson, in their PLUTO Theatre. Set in 1992, three sisters, who have become estranged over a ten-year period, reunite in the sleepy seaside town of Sorrento, on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. They have not seen each other for some years when some very sensitive issues are raised. They all live such different lives, but they have come together as a family after the death of their father Wal Moynihan (John Stibbard). Hilary (Alison Telfer McDonald) the older sister, has remained In Sorrento and brought up her 16-year-old son Troy (Nathaniel Cross), while Pippa (Gemma Keliher) has become a successful businesswoman in New York, and Meg (Izabela Wasilewski), launched her new novel “Melancholy” which has been nominated for a Booker Prize Award in London, where she now lives with her English husband Edwin (Dan Crestani). However, the award -winning novel appears to be a “veiled” autobiography about her own family and memories of the life Meg knew in Sorrento before she left for London. Meg’s novel unintentionally, exposes her family’s intimate secrets; the revelations in her novel cause conflict and a rift develops between them.

Hotel Sorrento would have been a challenge for director, Susan O’Toole- Cridland, because it calls for a complicated set. Kim Phillips designed this set for the small stage. The director suggested that although PLUTO was a small space, it lent itself to a more intimate and revealing look at the characters, and the family, which helped to create a more intense atmosphere.

In Act 1 there are 3 settings: the Moynihan’s family home, Meg’s flat in London, and the jetty, where we find Marg (Shirley Moran) a teacher, and her partner, Dick, (Jeremy Wellwood), a journalist. Act 2 is set in the family home, while the jetty becomes multifunctional and a place where intimate reveals can be heard. On a larger stage these three distinct settings may have been designed differently.

From the beginning there appears to be a continuous flow of action and events are drawn together by subtle music, composed and played by Oscar Lowe, heard throughout the play, underpinning the action; this encourages a stronger ambiance in scenes along with the featured light cues for each new scene in different parts of the set.

The experienced cast gave compelling performances, and received a good audience response. Especially the three sisters, Hilary Moynihan, (Alison Telfer McDonald), Pippa Moynihan (Gemma Keliher), and Meg Moynihan (Izabela Wasilewski), who all brought sincerity and truth to their role and gave it depth and dimension; this in turn helped accentuate the playwright’s intention i.e. family relationships, dealing with sensitive threads, loyalty, and accountability; however, the two sisters living abroad still held their local accents. The intimate performance space, contributed to the impact of the writer’s message which was: Australian identity, family conflict, memory, family who remain at home as opposed to those living abroad, family fallout after Meg’s novel is read and family secrets are revealed.

Hotel Sorrento remains relevant today, especially in regard to many issues women face in their relationships; It covers some very poignant and touching moments.  It demonstrates how the bonds of sisterhood can be truly tested when the sisters navigate loss, identity and perspective. The cast showed trust, generosity and integrity in their team work and this made for artistically, meaningful, theatre.