Hotel Sorrento

Hannie Rayson

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781921429033
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro

Hilary lives in seaside Sorrento with her father and sixteen-year-old son; Pippa is visiting from New York and Meg returns from England with her English husband. %##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Three sisters, reunited after ten years in different worlds, again feel the constraints of family life. It is Meg's semi-autobiographical novel, recently short-listed for the Booker prize, which overshadows their homecoming.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%1991 AWGIE Award — Stage Award%##CHAR13##%1990 NSW Premier's Literary Award — Play Award%##CHAR13##%1990 Green Room Award — Best Play

ACT ONE

SCENE ONE

Two figures sit on the end of the jetty. It is dusk. The man is fishing. There are remnants of fish and chips in white paper lying between them. She is reading Melancholy. He is staring out to sea.

MARGE: Listen,

‘In the autumn, the dusk fell gently. She sat at the end of the jetty listening to the tinkling of the masts and the water lapping at the poles. The jetty creaked at the joints and the boats bobbed about, deserted now. There was a nip in the air.

‘With the demise of summer, the town seemed to settle back on itself, to mellow. The breeze no longer carried the crackle of transistors, the call of gulls and the smell of fish and chips. With the summer visitors gone, there was a sense of quiet industry about the place. It was the business of getting on with things. Across at the pier the local kids were reeling in their lines. They would go up for tea shortly, squeeze in around their kitchen tables and tuck into hot corned beef and apple sponge.

‘From where she sat, she could see the quiet little foreshore with its white bandstand framed by Norfolk pine. Beyond that, the road swept up the hill into the township. She could see the rooves of the cottages, peeping out from amidst the straggle of ti-tree. She focussed on the tip of the tallest pine and counted across from the left. A red, a green, a red. The second red roof on the hill. “That’s us”, she whispered, and it was then that she felt it; the sweet pensive sadness, the melancholy, the yearning for something that she could not name.’

[MARGE closes the book and looks up at DICK expectantly. She scrutinises his face for a response.]

DICK: What?

MARGE: This is the jetty, I’m sure of it.

[DICK smirks, unconvinced.]

Look, the bandstand, the pines, the road sweeping up to the township. Everything. It’s exactly as she describes it. It’s Sorrento.

SCENE TWO

It is 7.00 a.m. HILARY stands on the balcony looking out to sea. She wraps her cardigan round her tightly and holds on to her mug of tea. She watches affectionately as her father, WAL and son, TROY come up the path. WAL strides forward with his towel slung over a shoulder. TROY scrambles behind huddled in his towel, shivering.

HIL: How was it?

WAL: Beautiful.

[HIL laughs at her son, who is standing at the bottom of the verandah steps shivering and shaking his head to get the water out of his ears.]

WAL: Look at it will you. Looks like a plucked chook.

TROY: Get off!

WAL: Go on. Get into a hot shower.

HIL: Get the sand off first.

[TROY disappears around the back of the house. WAL leans on the balcony.]

WAL: Look at that, eh? It’s beautiful down there this morning. Clear as crystal that water. You ought to come with us.

[HIL gives him a ‘Don’t be stupid’ look. He picks up a coat lying on a chair.]

WAL: What’s this?

HIL: It’s Pip’s.

WAL: Got more clothes than I’ve had hot breakfasts, that girl. Got a cup of tea on the go?

HIL: Mmm hm.

WAL: She still asleep?

HIL: Yep.

WAL: I’ll take one into her.

HIL: No, don’t. Let her sleep.

WAL: Ah … missing the best part of the morning.

HIL: Dad. Let her sleep. They knock you about those long flights.

WAL: Yeah. S’ppose so. Bloody long time to be cooped up in one of those things.

HIL: You know she’s only going to be staying for a ...