Hannie Rayson

Extinction

Competitive Tenderness

Three sisters reunited after ten years in different worlds, again feel the constraints of family life. Hotel Sorrento looks at conflicting concepts of national identity and family loyalty. (2 acts, 4 male, 4 female).

Hotel Sorrento

Tony Taylor

David Williamson

Deborah Mailman

Keith Robinson

Ron Elisha

Wesley Enoch

Saturday night, small town Wales, one pub, one party and three lads stuck with their school reputations - the gimp, the geek and the bully. Their dream - to get the hell out Dead White Males: "Triumphant...The neatly lined up ducks of academic absolutism are ruthlessly, and hilariously, assassinated" - Sydney Morning Herald; "Swain is a wonderful creation" - Guardian The 7 Stages of Grieving: "A subtle and complex invitation to experience something of the depth of Aboriginal grieving" - Melbourne Age. Hotel Sorrento: "Has a moody, evocative, literary sweep and scope to it" - Sydney Morning Herald Two: In 1948, in a German town, Anna comes to Rabbi Chaim Levi for Hebrew lessons. As the two study the language, their stories are gradually revealed, raising fundamental moral questions as they try to reconcile their tormented pasts and accept and renew their lives. The Popular Mechanicals: "One of the most rollickingly entertaining nights in the theatre" (Sydney Morning Herald)

The Hotel Sorrento; Dead White Males; Two; The 7 Stages of Grieving; The Popular Mechanicals

Contemporary Australian Plays

Play about the reunion after 10 years of three sisters whose past is disinterred through an autobiographical novel one of the sisters has recently written. The playwright was awarded an Australian Writers' Guild Award for TRoom to Move' and has written for film and television.

A memoir in parts, from one of Australia's best-loved playwrights. Hannie Rayson - writer, mother, daughter, sister, wife, romantic, adventuress, parking-spot optimist - has spent a lifetime giving voice to others in the many roles she has written for stage and television. In her new book, she shines the spotlight on herself. This collection of stories from a dramatic life radiate with the great warmth and humour that has made Hannie one of the best-known playwrights in the country. From a childhood in Brighton to a urinary tract infection in Spain, from a body buried under the house to a play on a tram, Hello, Beautiful! captures a life behind the scenes - a life of tender moments, hilarious encounters and, inevitably, drama. Hannie Rayson is a playwright and screenwriter. Her works - including Hotel Sorrento, Inheritance and Life After George - have been performed around Australia and internationally. She has been awarded two Australian Writers' Guild Awards, four Helpmann Awards, two NSW Premier's Literary Awards and a Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Her play Life After George was the first play to be nominated for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Hannie lives in Melbourne. ‘So beautifully written, so funny, so insightful and so obviously written by a warm and appealing human being.’ David Williamson ‘Smart, witty, warm, self effacing and hilarious. Each chapter is a shining gem—a passionate view, a formative experience, a mortifying anecdote. Hannie Rayson’s insight, honesty and ear for dialogue as one of Australia’s foremost playwrights is beyond dispute. Here she turns her talents to memoir and those closest to her with results so disarming and entertaining I didn’t want it to end.’ Kat Stewart ‘Hannie paints with vivid colours. Her development as a writer and a woman is richly portrayed, with all the shades of intense feeling and emotion that her dramatic characters share spilling from the page in a riot of evocative memories. Hello, Beautiful! is as nourishing and delicious as home-made soup.’ Noni Hazlehurst ‘Hannie’s writing shows the extraordinary truth of ordinary life—that it is, in fact, anything but ordinary. I was glued to this delightful book.’ Sigrid Thornton ‘Think of this as bottled sunshine....her anecdotes about family, friends and the community she belongs to, are told with perfect comic timing and one of the most acute ears in the business for dialogue.’ Caroline Baum, Booktopia Buzz ‘This is a book that welcomes readers generously into its author’s secure and stimulating private world – and makes us wish, as we reluctantly close the final chapter, that we could be there for real.’ Adelaide Advertiser ‘A book of beautifully crafted, free-flowing vignettes that illuminates with warmth and humour.‘ Australian ‘Every chapter tickles.’ Country Living ‘Rayson’s vignettes are perfectly constructed and she is a virtuoso of self-deprecating humour.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘With her cooly curious eye and facility for dialogue, Rayson has chronicled key moments in the nation’s social history...Hello, Beautiful! is a scrapbook of Rayson’s family foibles, thoughts and simple dreams.’ Big Issue ‘It was a pleasure to read such a refreshing take on the genre of memoir, written with skill, warmth and optimism. Like every good theatrical experience, you are left wanting more.’ Good Reading ‘Beautifully structured and articulated, not to mention hilarious....Rayson reels you in with her storytelling.’ Australian Book Review ‘An easy, entertaining read, written in a chatty, friendly, open style.’ Starts at Sixty

Hannie Rayson

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