The Cock Tavern Theatre Closes HOTEL SORRENTO Sept 11

Good Night Out Presents the UK Premiere of HOTEL SORRENTO by HAnnie Rayson, runs 17th August - 11th September 2010 (PRESS NIGHT: THURSAY 20th AUGUST at 7.30pm) 

Directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher; Designed by Mick Agosta

Continuing its commitment to bringing unduly neglected plays to a new audience, The c*ckTavern Theatre presents the UK premiere of HAnnie Rayson's multi-award winning 1990 Australian classic.

Buried feelings of rivalry, loss and betrayal resurface when three sisters are reunited after ten years apart. Brought together in the sleepy Australian seaside town of Sorrento they grew up in, they are forced into self-examination when one of them publishes a novel drawn upon autobiography and the family's past.

Celebrated writer Meg is visiting from England where her novel has just been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. High-flying advertising executive Pippa is in Australia on a business trip from New York. Hilary never left Sorrento; she has stayed with their father since their mother died. Exploring Australian national identity and culture, HOTEL SORRENTO is a story about fractured family loyalty and the tensions between those who've left and those who stay behind.

"A classic in Australian drama" THE AGE

HOTEL SORRENTO won the Australian Writers Guild Award, NSW Premier's Literary Award and Green Room Award for Best Play (1990). It is extensively performed in Australia and studied on high school and university syllabuses. A film adaptation starring Joan Plowright was nominated for 10 Australian Film Institute Awards in 1995.

"A powerful Australian play that begins as a comedy about national identity and develops into

a familial drama of great poignancy and reverberation" THE AUSTRALIAN
One of Australia's most significant playwrights HAnnie RaySON has been awarded 2 Australian Writers' Guild Awards; 4 Helpmann Awards; 2 NSW Premier's Literary Awards; a Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the Age Performing Arts Award. Her plays include: Please Return to Sender; Mary; Leave It Till Monday; Room to Move; Falling From Grace; Competitive Tenderness; Life After George (first play ever nominated for the Miles Franklin Award); Inheritance; Two Brothers and The Swimming Club. She also wrote Scenes from a Separation with Andrew Bovell. In 2006 she was nominated for the Melbourne Prize for Literature (a prize for an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life).

Director ADAM SPREADBURY-MAHER ("Best Artistic Director" - Fringe Report Awards 2010) is Artistic Director of The c*ckTavern Theatre and their resident companies Good Night Out Presents and OperaUpClose. He won an Australia Critics' Circle Award (2004) for his production of Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing. Adam has directed at The King's Head; Arcola; Oval House; White Bear and Etcetera Theatres. Recent directing credits include: revivals by Stephen Fry and Nick Ward (both at The c*ckTavern Theatre); Studies for a Portrait (Time Out Critics' Choice) and The York Realist (Time Out Critics' Choice) and as Associate Director on the West End transfer of Holding The Man (Trafalgar Studios).

"Lovingly revived by Adam Spreadbury-Maher" Michael Billington, GUARDIAN ****

(on The York Realist)

THE c*ckTAVERN THEATRE won the prestigious Dan Crawford Pub Theatre Award at the Peter Brook Empty Space Awards. Formed in January 2009, under the artistic leadership of Adam Spreadbury-Maher the theatre runs a bold programme of new writing alongside select revivals. Resident theatre company Good Night Out Presents was formed in August 2008. Credits include the Time Out Critics' Choice productions of Studies for a Portrait (White Bear and transfers to Oval House and King's Head) and The York Realist (Riverside Studios). Adam begins his first season as Artistic Director at the King's Head Theatre in autumn 2010; Good Night Out Presents will be the resident company at both theatres. Resident company OperaUpClose's production of La Boh?me ran for a record-breaking 5 months this year, it transfers to Soho Theatre in July.

Venue: The c*ckTavern Theatre, 125 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 6JH

Dates & Times: Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm, Sunday at 3pm

Box Office: 08444 771 000 / www.cocktaverntheatre.com Tickets £12 (£10 concessions)

LIMITED NUMBER OF £5 TICKETS FOR EVERY PERFORMANCE
Transport: Kilburn Park (Bakerloo)