Cambridge IGCSE™

DRAMA 0411/11
Paper 1 May/June 2024

COPY OF PRE-RELEASE MATERIAL 2 hours 30 minutes

* 6 7 5 1 5 1 7 9 6 4 *

INSTRUCTIONS
● The questions in Paper 1 will be based on the two play extracts provided in this booklet.
● This copy of the pre-release material is for you to use in your responses.

This document has 28 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (LK) 340427/1
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EXTRACT 1

Taken from Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson

These notes are intended to help you understand the context of the drama.

The extract is taken from Hotel Sorrento by Australian playwright, Hannie Rayson. It was first performed
in Melbourne in 1990. The play is set mostly in the small community of Sorrento, a pretty coastal town
on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia.

It is an episodic play, which centres on the lives of the three Moynihan sisters who grew up in Sorrento,
although only the eldest, Hilary, still lives there. The sisters have gathered in the family house for
the funeral of their father. Old tensions resurface and new conflicts arise, partly through a novel,
Melancholy, that Meg has published.

The play comprises two acts and the extract is taken from Act Two, Scenes 1 to 11.

Characters

HILARY MOYNIHAN (Oldest of the sisters, widow, still lives in Sorrento in the family house with her
son; runs a deli.)
TROY MOYNIHAN (Her teenage son.)
MEG MOYNIHAN (Middle sister, novelist, who now lives in England.)
EDWIN BATES (45, a London publisher, Englishman married to Meg.)
PIPPA MOYNIHAN (Youngest sister, lives in New York, an advertising executive, well-travelled.)
MARGE MORRISEY (57, a teacher; her children are grown-up, and she visits her Sorrento holiday
home every weekend.)
DICK BENNETT (43, editor of the Australian Voice paper; long term friend of Marge.)

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ACT TWO

Scene One

[The three sisters are sitting at the end of the jetty. Over to their right,
EDWIN is paddling in the shallows. The atmosphere is infused with a
sense of melancholy.]

HILARY: Do you remember the Sorrento fair? [Both PIPPA and MEG nod.]
Remember the year the fortune-teller came? 5
MEG: He wasn’t a fortune-teller, was he?
HILARY: What was he then?
PIPPA: He was a ‘world renowned’ palmist and clairvoyant.
HILARY: What did he tell you? Do you remember?
MEG: Not really. Something like ‘You are going to be rich and famous and 10
travel vast distances across the sea.’

[They smile.]

HILARY: What about you, Pip?

PIPPA: Er … rich and famous and travel vast distances. Something highly
personalised like that. 15
HILARY: He said I was one of three.
PIPPA: That was a good guess.
MEG: What else?
HILARY: That was it. The Rixon kids threw stones at the caravan and he went
off after them. 20
PIPPA: I don’t think you got your shilling’s worth.

[They muse over the memory. In the distance PIPPA sees TROY
walking alone at the top of the cliff. He is looking out to sea.]

PIPPA: There’s Troy.

[The other women look in that direction. They watch silently. There is 25
a change in mood.]

Still looking for Pop.

[Silence.]

MEG: Poor kid. The sea will never give up its dead.
HILARY: He’s a different boy isn’t he? He’s just clammed up. He loved Dad so 30
much. They had something very special those two. It’s not fair is it?
[Silence.] People are always dying on him.
PIPPA: He’s a survivor, Hilary. He is.
HILARY: Yeah … but at what cost?

[Pause. MEG looks at her. HILARY looks away.] 35

PIPPA: What do you mean?

HILARY: He feels responsible this time.

[Silence.]

MEG: I know what that’s like. [They stare out to sea. MEG waits for a
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response. None is forthcoming.] I think I’ll go for a walk. [PIPPA and 40

HILARY say nothing. MEG makes her way over to EDWIN.]
PIPPA: You think I’m still an angry young thing, don’t you? You may think this
is rubbish, but I’m different when I’m away. I’m a different person. If
you met any of my friends in New York and you said, ‘Pippa’s such a
cot case isn’t she?’ they wouldn’t know what you were talking about. I 45
am a cot case. I know I am. But only when I’m here. I really did want
people to see how much I’d changed. But people don’t want to see
that do they? They don’t want to see what’s new about you. They’re
suspicious. You are who you are and if you try and change, you
must be faking. Bunging on an act. But over there Americans think 50
differently. In fact, if you’re not working to make positive changes in
your life … You’re cynical about that, aren’t you? Everybody has the
potential. It’s just whether we choose to take up on it or not.
HILARY: Sounds like propaganda to me. I think I’d rather be saying, ‘OΚ, this is
who I am. Like it or lump it. May as well get used to it, and make the 55
best of it.’

[PIPPA makes no response. She looks out to sea.]

Scene Two

[In the shallows.]

EDWIN: What’s up?

[MEG sighs.] 60

MEG: I had hoped that I would know the place for the first time. But I’m not
sure that I know it any better than when I left.
EDWIN: Things change in ten years, Meg.
MEG: No. They haven’t. That’s just it. It’s like there’s this highly elasticised
thread that’s tied around us three and it stretches from Australia to 65
Britain and to the States and all of a sudden it’s just given out and
thwack we’re flung back together again. And we’re just the same
little girls, but this time in women’s bodies. I’m beginning to feel quite
middle-aged.
EDWIN: I’m not surprised. This town feels like everyone in it was born into 70
middle age. The only conversations I’ve had since we arrived have
been about children and compost.
MEG: People don’t know what to say to us. Grief makes people realise how
inadequate they are.
EDWIN: Yes. [Pause.] Tell me, does anything ever happen here? 75
MEG: No. People live out quiet ineffectual lives and then they die.

[Silence.]

EDWIN: I must say, Hilary is quite a remarkable woman isn’t she?

MEG: Why do you say that?
EDWIN: The way she copes with things. 80
MEG: Oh, yes. Hilary copes. She ‘copes’ because she shuts down. That’s
the way she lives her life. She doesn’t let herself feel. She doesn’t
think about things too deeply. It’s like she made a decision a long time
ago that she was done with crying. Nothing or nobody was ever going
to hurt her again, and people think she’s so strong, so remarkable. I 85
don’t. I think she’s a coward.
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EDWIN: I think you’re being very unfair. I can’t imagine what it must be like
for her. She’s had to deal with three deaths. All of them tragic. I can’t
even begin to think how one would ever really deal with that.
MEG: No, perhaps you can’t. 90
EDWIN: And I don’t think you can either.
MEG: They were my parents too, Edwin …
EDWIN: I know. But he wasn’t your husband, Meg.
MEG: No, he wasn’t my husband. But I loved him. That’s what you don’t
understand. I loved him too. 95

Scene Three

[HILARY and PIPPA make their way up the path to the house. They
stop for a breather and take in the view.]

HILARY: I dreamt last night that I married Edwin.

PIPPA: Whoa, that was nasty.
HILARY: I forgot to shave my legs. 100
PIPPA: Oh, Hilary. That was an oversight.
HILARY: I know. I was wearing a short white dress and these terrible hairy legs.
I just couldn’t enjoy myself.
PIPPA: I can imagine. Did he wear pyjamas?
HILARY: No. He was wearing a purple suit. 105

[PIPPA bursts out laughing.]

PIPPA: I mean afterwards, you fool.

HILARY: I didn’t get that far. I woke up about halfway through the reception.
PIPPA: That was lucky. You know, I can’t get my head around the possibility
that anyone could actually fancy Eddie. 110

[HILARY laughs despite herself.]

HILARY: Oh, Pippa. You’re dreadful. He’s not that bad.

PIPPA: He is. He’s ridiculous. Look at him down there. ‘Paddling’. Anyway,
I’ve always found Englishmen rather ridiculous.

[The two women walk up the path to the verandah. TROY comes out 115
of the house.]

HILARY: Troy?
TROY: Yeah.
HILARY: Who was that, driving off?
TROY: That guy Dick Bennett. 120
HILARY: What did he want?

[TROY holds up a single rose in a cellophane cylinder.]

TROY: He left this.

HILARY: He must be down for the weekend.
PIPPA: Who? 125
HILARY: The guy who drove me to the beach … that day.
TROY: I think he’s got the hots for you.
HILARY: Don’t be silly, Troy. [She takes the rose and reads the card.] What
makes you say that?
TROY: He asked me if I wanted to go fishing. 130
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PIPPA: That makes sense. A way to a woman’s heart is a bucket of fresh

flathead.
TROY: You’d be surprised the number of boring old farts that come round
here with flowers asking me to go fishing.
PIPPA: Maybe they’ve got the hots for you. Anything’s possible. 135

[TROY gives her a ‘don’t be smart’ look.]

HILARY: What did you say anyway?

TROY: ‘No’, of course. I don’t want to go fishing with him.

[He gets up to leave.]

HILARY: Why don’t you go over and see one of your mates? 140

[TROY shrugs and goes indoors.]

PIPPA: What’s the card say?

HILARY: ‘With deepest sympathy.’
PIPPA: Do they really come round here asking him to go fishing.
HILARY: What do you reckon? 145

[Silence.]

PIPPA: You know what I reckon. I reckon you ought to pack up and leave.

[HILARY stops in her tracks.]

PIPPA: You’re marking time Hil. You’ve been marking time for years. Now’s
your chance. 150

Scene Four

[MEG is wandering alone through the cemetery. A light rain is

beginning to fall. TROY hovers some distance away, unseen by MEG.]

TROY: Meg? Aunt Meg?

[MEG looks up and smiles wanly.]

[TROY approaches gingerly. He hands her a coat.] 155

Thought you might need this.

MEG: Thank you. [They stand together silently for a while.] I used to come
here when I was a kid. Just wander around and read the tombstones.
I still remember the names. Charlotte Grace Phelps and Frederic
Ernest Phelps. See, September 12, 1890 and October 1, 1890. 160
He died three week later. Lottie and Fred. D’you think he died of a
broken heart? Can you imagine loving someone so much that you just
couldn’t go on?

[TROY shrugs.]

TROY: I just wanted to say that we read your book, Pop and me, but … we 165
didn’t finish it.

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[MEG nods.]

MEG: It’s only a book.

TROY: He asked me to read it to him. We used to read it on the verandah
when Mum was at work. We only had two chapters to go. [He sighs.] 170
I tried to read them last night … but … [He shakes his head. Pause.]
D’you know the part I liked best?
MEG: No?
TROY: When Helen and Grace meet in Italy.
MEG: That’s the thing you have to be careful about with fiction. It leads us to 175
believe that reconciliations are possible.
TROY: What d’you mean?

[TROY looks at her intently, obviously wanting a response.]

MEG: People coming together … reconciling their differences. It doesn’t

always happen. 180
TROY: It doesn’t happen in real life, you mean?
MEG: Not always. No.
TROY: Well, why did you write it then?

[MEG makes no reply.]

Scene Five

[EDWIN stands on the balcony of the verandah looking out to sea. 185
PIPPA is sitting on the steps. HILARY comes out. They both look
down at MEG walking alone along the beach.]

HILARY: I thought you might like a drink.

EDWIN: Yes. Thank you. That’d be nice.

[HILARY hands him a can. He expects a glass, but as none is 190

forthcoming, he pulls the ring off the top of the can and sips tentatively.]

EDWIN: It’s really very beautiful, isn’t it. It grows on you, I think.
HILARY: Mm.
EDWIN: Poor Meg. She looks so fragile doesn’t she?

[PIPPA rolls her eyes, unseen by EDWIN.] 195

EDWIN: Well, I don’t suppose you know where Troy is, do you?

[HILARY shrugs.]

HILARY: I think he might be in his room.

EDWIN: I thought he and I might go fishing tomorrow.

[PIPPA bursts out laughing. HILARY suppresses a grin. EDWIN looks 200
vaguely hurt.]

PIPPA: Sorry, Eddie. Bit of a private joke.

[EDWIN manages a weak grin. He goes to leave, then turns to PIPPA.]

EDWIN: By the way, if you could manage it … I’d really rather be called Edwin.
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PIPPA: OK, Edwin it is. 205

EDWIN: Thanks.

[Once out of earshot.]

PIPPA: No wuz, Eddie ol’ bean! [HILARY gives her a withering look.]
HILARY: Pip.
PIPPA: She looks so fragile. 210
HILARY: Don’t be mean.
PIPPA: I’m not. It just turns my stomach that’s all.
HILARY: He loves her. God! I’d give my eye-teeth for someone to love me like
that. Wouldn’t you?

Scene Six

[MARGE and DICK are sitting on the verandah of MARGE’s holiday 215
house.]

MARGE: I saw her on the jetty today. She’s quite plump really. That’s odd isn’t
it?
DICK: What?
MARGE: Well, her being a rather large, big-boned sort of woman. 220
DICK: What’s odd about that?
MARGE: I don’t know. I suppose I expected her to be fragile. You know, rather
slight with fine bones and long fingers.

[MARGE smiles, not without irony. Pause.]

DICK: I thought I might wander over there this afternoon. 225

[MARGE looks at him sideways.]

MARGE: Oh.
DICK: Yeah, just to see how they’re getting on.
MARGE: Hilary, you mean.

[DICK shrugs. Pause.] 230

Were you wanting to see Hilary? … Or Meg?

DICK: Well, Hilary, I suppose. I haven’t met ‘Ms’ Moynihan.
MARGE: Don’t you think that’s a bit intrusive?

[Pause.]

Don’t use that please. 235

DICK: What do you mean?
MARGE: I’d just hate to think that you’d use the situation to get your interview
with Meg. That’s all.
DICK: What do you think I am?
MARGE: A journalist. 240

[The muscle in his jaw is twitching.]

DICK: Ah. Well, that’s very telling isn’t it?

[DICK’s anger is imploding. He leans on the balcony.]

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MARGE: I’m sorry if I’ve … hurt your feelings.

DICK: Oh, don’t worry about it, Marge. I don’t have any feelings. Remember? 245
I’m a journalist. We’re the lowest of the low. I’m just sorry I didn’t have
my camera with me. I could have got some really good snaps. I mean
I was first on the scene, remember? I could have got the sister and
the nephew. The whole damn page one horror story.

Scene Seven

[MEG comes into the kitchen where PIPPA and HILARY are sitting.] 250

PIPPA: Meg, we were just talking about the estate. We have to make an
appointment with the solicitor. You free tomorrow?
MEG: He didn’t have any money to speak of, did he?
HILARY: Not much. But there’s … the house. We have to decide what to do
about it. 255
MEG: What d’you mean?
PIPPA: Whether to sell it or not.
MEG: Sell it? You can’t be serious? [Pause. She looks from one to the other
and fixes on HILARY.] It’s your home. Why would we want to sell it?
HILARY: It belongs to the three of us now. 260
MEG: So what? You live here. I mean that’s fine by me. Isn’t that fine by you,
Pip?
PIPPA: She’s thinking of moving up to Melbourne. Which I think’s a very good
idea.
MEG [to HILARY]: You didn’t tell me this. 265
HILARY: I haven’t made up my mind … yet. And I’m only one of three. I suppose
I wondered how you felt about it.
MEG: I feel terrible.
PIPPA: Why? You don’t live here. You haven’t lived here for ten years. And
the way I see it, is that Hilary has been the one to look after Dad for 270
all these years while you and I have been able to do exactly as we
please. So I think it’s up to her to say what she wants.
MEG: And what do you want, Pip?
PIPPA: I want what Hilary wants. And since she’s the one who’s made the
sacrifice … 275
MEG: Please don’t tell me about Hilary’s sacrifice. She is the one who made
the choice. Hilary. You made the choice.
PIPPA: There was no other choice.
MEG: She made the choice.
PIPPA: What was the choice? That we had a nurse for the two years after he 280
had the heart attack. Got in a housekeeper. Meals on wheels. Don’t
be ridiculous, Meg. Were you prepared to come here and look after
him?
HILARY: Pippa, please.
MEG: No. I was not prepared to come back here. You know that. But other 285
arrangements could have been made.
PIPPA: Like what?
MEG: I don’t know because it didn’t come to that.
PIPPA: Because Hilary said she’d step in.
MEG: Yes. She made a choice. 290

[PIPPA is fuming.]

HILARY: It’s OK, Pip.

PIPPA: No it’s not OK. I think we owe you something. I think we owe you a
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great deal. And I’m sorry that Meg doesn’t feel like that. In fact I think
it’s disgusting. 295
MEG: Well you’re a child.
PIPPA: Is that all you can say?
MEG: It’s our home. Our family home.
PIPPA: Not any more.
HILARY: It is, Pip. 300
PIPPA: It’s not. You live in England. It’s not your home.
MEG: And you’re doing your best to make me feel like that.

Scene Eight

[EDWIN and TROY are fishing off the jetty.]

TROY: Did you ever meet my dad?

EDWIN: No. I met Meg after she came to London. 305
TROY: Oh, yeah, that’s right.

[Silence.]

How come she went. Do you know?

EDWIN: Well, I suppose she wanted to travel. Most Aussies have the travel
bug don’t they? 310
TROY: Yeah. Pop used to say that he couldn’t understand why people wanted
to do it. ‘Why would anyone want to leave a place like this?’ He was
always saying that.
EDWIN: Perhaps he had a point.
TROY: He said people only travelled when they needed to run away. 315

[Pause.]

EDWIN: Well two of his daughters did travel. What did he say about that?
TROY: He said they were running away.
EDWIN: Oh, I don’t really believe that. Do you?

[TROY shrugs.] 320

TROY: I don’t know what to believe. I don’t think there’s much use staying
put. Just for the sake of it. [Pause.] There’s nothing much to do here.
Not any more.

Scene Nine

[HILARY sits alone on the beach. MARGE approaches.]

MARGE: Hilary? 325

HILARY: Oh, hello. How are you?
MARGE: I’m OK. How are you – more to the point?
HILARY: Oh … bearing up. By the way – I’ve been meaning to write you a note
– I’m sorry I just haven’t got around to it.
MARGE: Of course you haven’t. Don’t be silly. 330
HILARY: I wanted to thank you for all your help. That day and everything. You
and Dick.
MARGE: I just feel so sorry. I can’t stop thinking about you all.
HILARY: Yeah. [Pause.] Do you want to sit down?
MARGE: You don’t want to be on your own? 335
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HILARY: No. I think I’ll go crazy if I spend too much time on my own. So, how’s
it going at your place?
MARGE: Oh, pretty good. Dick’s down again this week.
HILARY: Yeah.
MARGE: He’s been coming down quite a bit lately. Driving me nuts. 340

[She laughs. HILARY smiles.]

HILARY: I thought you two were the best of mates.

MARGE: Oh, yes we are, I suppose. He’s just been getting on my nerves a bit
lately.
HILARY: Really? 345
MARGE: I can’t be bothered with men much these days! Terrible thing to say
isn’t it? But I’m afraid it’s the truth.

[HILARY laughs.]

MARGE: He’s such an idealogue. It’s a bit like having lunch with a textbook.
HILARY: Is he a teacher too? 350
MARGE: No. Used to be, but no, now he’s a writer. He writes political stuff,
cultural analysis, that sort of thing.
HILARY: I think I’d be out of my depth there.
MARGE: No, not necessarily. Anyway he’s totally out of his depth when it
comes to relating to women. I used to find him quite intimidating you 355
know, because he seemed so clever and articulate. But now …

[She scoffs]

HILARY: You should be at the dinner table at our place. With Meg and her
husband. I’m sure they must think I’m a complete dummy.
MARGE: I doubt it. 360
HILARY: I used to think that when my sisters had children they’d have to stop
for a bit. And that’d be my chance to catch up. So when they were up
to their elbows in nappies and all that business, I’d be out there doing
all the things that they’ve been able to do. But it doesn’t work like that
does it? 365

[MARGE smiles.]

They’d be able to have their children without the slightest hiccup,

those two girls.
MARGE: Hard to say. They might be totally bamboozled by it.
HILARY: I doubt it. They’re so competent in every other way – motherhood isn’t 370
that hard.
MARGE: Millions’d disagree of course. [Pause.] You sound like Helen.
HILARY: Who’s Helen?
MARGE: Helen, in the book.
HILARY: Oh, yeah. That’d be right. The parochial one. That’s me. 375
MARGE: She’s my favourite character actually.
HILARY: Is she?
MARGE: Oh, yes. [She smiles. Pause.] I was so much like Helen … [She
pauses, lost in thought. She glances at HILARY who looks at her
questioningly.] … except that I don’t think I was betrayed quite so 380
terribly as she was. My husband left me for another woman when the
children were little. Oh, years and years ago now. And I behaved just
like Helen – so ‘adult’ about it all. I had to, I suppose. I was always
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seeing them because we were constantly ferrying the children back

and forth between the two households. [Pause.] I was so nice to them, 385
you know. I had such little self-esteem that I was able to completely
understand or at least rationalise why he’d want to team up with her.
She was everything I wasn’t. And because I wanted the children to
be able to cope with the divorce and the split households, I kind of
promoted them as a couple. I told the children they were lucky to have 390
her. She’d be able to show them and tell them things about the world
that I couldn’t. I gave her such good publicity … and it worked. And I
paid for it. Not that the children lost respect for me … I think they’ve
always loved me … but I don’t feel as though they know me. [Pause.]
I’m not a known quantity. To my children. And I know exactly why I 395
did it. I couldn’t bear my children to see me being so resentful and
bitter. Which is exactly how I felt. [Pause.] So I suppose that’s why
I understood Helen. She couldn’t really vent her spleen ever, could
she? She had too much to lose. Or at least that’s how she saw it. So,
she just went on coping … and everyone thought she was strong. 400

Scene Ten

[MEG is in the garden, PIPPA comes out.]

PIPPA: Meg?
MEG: Mm?
PIPPA: I’m sorry.

[Pause.] 405

MEG: Pip, I’ve been carrying guilt for too long. I don’t need you to lump it on
me again.

[Silence. PIPPA looks frightened.]

PIPPA: I haven’t lumped anything on you.

MEG: Haven’t you? 410
PIPPA: Look, I don’t want to talk about all that.
MEG: You never want to talk about it. You never have and you never will.
PIPPA: It’s in the past, Meg.
MEG: You ask Troy whether he thinks it’s in the past. I don’t know what to
say to him, Pip. Do you know? Or do you just change the topic? Or 415
perhaps he doesn’t ask you about his father, because he asks me.

[PIPPA says nothing.]

PIPPA: What do you want me to do, Meg? What do you want me to say?
Hmm?

[MEG closes her eyes. Long pause.] 420

MEG: I think I hurt his feelings this morning.

PIPPA: Well, really?
MEG: Pippa. Don’t you have any softness about you at all? Do you have to
cut at everything?

[PIPPA says nothing. MEG goes to touch her arm. PIPPA flinches.] 425

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PIPPA: He’s only a boy remember. I don’t want him to have to hurt any more
than he is already. That’s all.

[The flywire screen bangs and TROY comes out onto the verandah.
He comes over to where the women are standing.]

How are you, ol’ bean? 430

TROY: Mum said to say that she’s asked that guy Dick Bennett and Marge
someone or other over for lunch. That OK with you guys?

[PIPPA and MEG groan.]

PIPPA: She’s always been the sociable one of the family.

Scene Eleven

[The lunch. EDWIN and DICK are on the verandah. The sounds of 435
chatter and laughter are heard from the kitchen. It is as though they
are waiting for the women to come out. There is an awkward silence.]

DICK: So, you’re in publishing?

EDWIN: Yes. It’s just a small concern really. I’m in partnership with another
chap and we do about twenty books a year. 440
DICK: What sort of stuff?
EDWIN: Oh … coffee table books mostly. [He laughs self-deprecatingly.] We
do a lot of art books. Architecture, historic buildings. That sort of
thing. We’ve done the occasional cookery book. Against my better
judgement I might add. 445
DICK: I wouldn’t have thought the English had much of a culinary tradition.
EDWIN: Ah … no. That’s not strictly true. There’s quite a resurgence of interest
in it at the moment – it’s highly fashionable to know about food. The art
of entertaining. Among certain sections of the community of course.
DICK: I don’t suppose you’ve ever considered grubbying your hands with 450
anything more political?

[TROY comes outside.]

EDWIN: I don’t think it’s a question for grubbying one’s hands actually. I think
it’s merely a matter of expertise. Ah Troy. You know … er … Dick?
Dick Bennett – Troy. 455
TROY: Yeah. G’day.
DICK: How’s things.
TROY: OK.
EDWIN: Traditional Australian gathering by the looks of it. Men in one room,
women in the other. Isn’t that how it goes? 460

[He grins.]

TROY: Yeah.
EDWIN: I’ve never really been able to understand that, you know. I mean as
far as I’m concerned, I’ve always thought that Australian women were
amongst the loveliest in the world. And yet the men – your average 465
Aussie bloke – doesn’t seem to be all that interested in them. That’s
always struck me as being very peculiar.
DICK: I think that’s a bit of a cliché, actually.
TROY: You reckon?
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EDWIN: Well I’ve got a bit of a theory about this. I’d be interested to hear what 470
you think. I suspect all this mateship business is quite possibly a way
of disguising a deeper stratum of misogyny in the Australian male.
[Pause.] What do you think, Troy? [TROY shrugs.] You see, I don’t
find it at all surprising that the feminist voice is at its most strident in
Australia. It’s always struck me that this is a very male culture and as 475
a result the struggle for women is by necessity more vehement here.
DICK: Compared to where? Britain?
EDWIN: Yes. I think so. Well, for example, in Britain, there are so many women
moving into top executive positions these days.
DICK: That may be so, but your lot has just dumped a woman prime minister. 480
Look, if feminism is only about women making it – then it’s nonsense
as far as I’m concerned. What matters is what women actually do,
when they have made it.

[The two men drain their glasses. TROY aware of the tension finds
this slightly amusing. HILARY and PIPPA enter carrying food.] 485

HILARY: OK. Everyone. Food.

TROY: Great, I’m starving.

[Everyone assembles in the living room. TROY pinches a piece of

bread. PIPPA slaps his hand.]

PIPPA: Starving, are you? Could you eat a horse? 490

TROY: Yes.
PIPPA: Good.

[PIPPA lifts the lid off the casserole and TROY looks in. He looks
dubious.]

That’s all he had. The butcher. I begged and pleaded but … 495
HILARY: Shut up, you two. It’s chicken casserole. Sit anywhere you like.
MEG: This looks great, Hil.

[There is general assent.]

MARGE: Who did this painting?

[Referring to a painting on the wall. The family members all smile at 500
the mention of the painting.]

PIPPA: A bloke called Clarrie Evans.

HILARY: He was a local. He’s dead now.
PIPPA: He was so strange. That’s him on the far left.
MEG: Dad gave him a hand building a chicken coop in his backyard and 505
Clarrie was so grateful he did this painting ’specially for him.
HILARY: Dad was so funny about it wasn’t he? He wasn’t real keen on the idea
of having one of Clarrie’s works of art, but as soon as he laid eyes on
it … he loved that painting. It was his pride and joy wasn’t it?

[The family members all nod their assent.] 510

MARGE: It’s this house isn’t it?

TROY: Yeah.

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[MARGE squints at the picture, reading the sign hanging from the
verandah.]

MARGE: Hotel Sorrento? 515

HILARY: Dad and all his mates used to sit out on the verandah and have a few
drinks. They called it Hotel Sorrento.
PIPPA: They’re all dead now. Every one of those blokes. [Referring to the
figures in the painting.] Clarrie, Mick Hennessy, Jock Farrell, Grabber
Carmichael. 520
EDWIN: Grabber?
HILARY: Best full-forward Sorrento’s ever had.
PIPPA: You know, when I’m away, and I’m thinking about home – that’s the
thing I remember. Those summer evenings, they’d all be out there,
listening to the cricket. Drinking and laughing. 525
MEG: And drinking and drinking …
PIPPA: I was thinking about this the other day … If I had to say what my dad
taught me … as a kid …
HILARY: Never back a two-year-old in the wet.

[They laugh.] 530

PIPPA: Yeah. [Pause.] I grew up believing that the penultimate sign of

weakness in a man was when he couldn’t hold his drink. The ultimate
sign was if he ordered lemonade in a pub. That kind of man was highly
untrustworthy. Funny isn’t it?
MEG: Pathetic really. 535
PIPPA: Our mum used to run around after them. Taking out trays of cold meat
and cheese and tomatoes and stuff. There was never any room in the
fridge. Remember? It was always full of bottles.
MEG: She couldn’t even afford to buy herself a dress at Christmas.
HILARY: She wouldn’t have had it any other way. 540
MEG: You reckon? She never had any friends of her own. It was all right
with the blokes, because they wouldn’t notice. But with women – I
think she felt terrible.
HILARY: What do you mean?
MEG: I think she was ashamed of her house, her clothes, the state of the 545
backyard. She never went out visiting and she certainly never invited
anyone back here. I think she was desperately lonely.

[Pause.]

MARGE: And I suppose she never complained?

HILARY: Oh, no. She complained all right. Loud and clear. 550
PIPPA: She harped and whinged and nagged. All the time. And in the end it
killed her.
MEG: She got cancer. [Long pause.] What do you do, Dick?

[MARGE and DICK exchange looks.]

DICK: I write. 555

MEG: Oh, really? Fiction?
DICK: No.
MEG: What then?
PIPPA: Non-fiction.

[TROY laughs.] 560

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DICK: Essays.
MEG: Mmm.
EDWIN: Essays. I’ve always thought that was a very honourable pursuit. I like
essays. I think it’s one of the most delicious of the literary forms.
HILARY: Everybody got everything. Salad, Marge? 565
MARGE: Oh, no thanks, dear.
EDWIN: It comes from the French. ‘Essayer’, to try, to attempt. Thank you.
What’s your subject?
DICK: Australia. Contemporary Australia.
EDWIN: Right. Fairly vast I would have thought. 570
DICK: I edit a bi-monthly paper.

[Everyone stops and looks at DICK.]

TROY: Which one?

DICK: The Australian Voice.
TROY: Oh, yeah. Pop used to buy that. 575
PIPPA: No he didn’t.
TROY: He did.
HILARY: Oh, that pink paper.
DICK: That’s the one.
HILARY: So you’re the editor? 580
DICK: Yeah.
HILARY: Well then, you’d better own up, Troy.
TROY: What?
HILARY [to DICK]: Remember that article on the motor industry. Beginning of
the year. Did you write that by any chance? 585
DICK: No.
HILARY: Phew. That was lucky.
TROY: Mum!
HILARY: Troy got an ‘A’ for an essay on the motor industry.
PIPPA: Hey, good on you, Troyby. 590
HILARY: Word for word, was it, Troy?
TROY: Get off. I changed it around … Sort of.

[Everyone laughs.]

MEG: Fancy Dad buying it.

HILARY: Dad said it was the only paper that gave the working man credit for 595
having a brain.
MEG: What about the working woman?
PIPPA: Big champion of the feminist movement our dad!
TROY: He was coming around.
EDWIN: Terrific bean salad, Hil. 600

[MEG gives him a look. EDWIN grins impishly.]

DICK: If he was down on feminism, what did he make of your book?

[Pause.]

MEG: I don’t know. I didn’t have a chance to ask him.

[Silence.] 605

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TROY: He liked it. What he read of it. [Pause.] But he said he didn’t think you
understood about loyalty.

[Pause.]

MEG: Loyalty to whom?

TROY: He just said that loyalty was the most important quality a person could 610
have.

[Silence. No one quite knows what to say.]

MARGE: Do you think he would have argued that loyalty was more important
than truth?
HILARY: Yes. I think he would have. Loyalty was a big issue for him. Sticking 615
by your mates … all of that.

[Silence.]

EDWIN: I think people hold on to these things, like the notion of loyalty, or
truth, as if they were unassailable. Er … with respect to your father. I
was just speaking generally. 620
MARGE: Oh, I agree absolutely. It’s like religion. It makes life so easy. Once
you’ve signed up, you don’t have to ask so many questions.
MEG: Exactly.
DICK: I suppose as a writer, this sort of thing must come up for you quite a
lot. 625
MEG: What sort of thing?
DICK: The issue of loyalty. Writing as you do, so autobiographically …

[EDWIN scoffs.]

MEG: I don’t write autobiography. I write fiction.

MARGE: There is a significant difference. 630
DICK: All right. Fiction. It’s just that the connection with Sorrento is fairly
obvious …
MARGE: I don’t think it was obvious. In fact I don’t think you would have made
any connection, would you, unless I’d pointed it out?

[DICK sighs. He is irritated.] 635

DICK: I don’t actually think that’s the point, Marge.

EDWIN: What is the point?
DICK: Well, just this business about loyalty. OK, you don’t write autobiography
as such, but to me your writing has a very personal feel and I wonder
if people ever take offence. 640
MEG: It hasn’t come up.
DICK: So it’s not an issue for you?
MEG: Oh, yes, it’s an issue. But it hasn’t come up. [Pause.] No one’s ever
raised it. I’ve been home for ten days and this is the first time the
book’s been mentioned. 645
TROY: No it’s not.
MEG: Oh, yes. Sorry. You and I had a bit of a talk about it, didn’t we? [To her
sisters.] But you two haven’t said a solitary word about it. I don’t even
know whether you’ve read it.
PIPPA: ’Course I’ve read it. 650
MEG [to HILARY]: Have you?
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HILARY: Mmm.
MEG: Well, why haven’t you said anything to me?
EDWIN: Meg. Come on. That’s a bit unfair.
MEG: Why is it unfair? Talk about loyalty. 655
PIPPA: There have been a few other things going on, Meg.

[Silence.]

DICK: Well I’m quite happy to talk about it.

MARGE: Dick.

[MEG ignores DICK and continues to address her sisters.] 660

MEG: It has been nominated for the Booker Prize. It’s not a completely
insignificant piece of work. Not that you’d know it round here. [Pause.]
You know, Dick, people used to ask me why I stayed in London. Why
I didn’t come home. And I used to say it was because the artist has no
status in this country. But I’m talking ten years ago. I was sure things 665
would have changed …
MARGE: But they have. There’s been significant changes …
MEG: Look, there’s all this talk about the new renaissance in Australian
culture. The literature, the cinema, the theatre. Aboriginal art, taking
the world by storm. But the fact is, in this country there is a suffocatingly 670
oppressive sense that what you do as an artist, is essentially self-
indulgent.
DICK: How do you know? You’ve only been here for ten days but you’ve
been away for ten years.
MEG: I know because I lived here for thirty years. I went away. And now I’m 675
back. Nothing has changed.
DICK: See, I think you’re wrong. And I can’t for the life of me see how you
can feel so authoritative about this. Like that interview in the Guardian.
MARGE: Dick.
DICK: I’m sorry but I found that highly offensive. What you said was cliché- 680
ridden and misinformed. Look, you’re entitled to your views …
MEG: It doesn’t sound like it.
DICK: Well, I’m entitled to disagree with you, all right. But the issue for me
is why you, as an expatriate, feel compelled to dump on this place.
Because in effect you’re dumping on the people who are actually 685
trying to do things.
MEG: So one can only be critical from the inside. Is that it? Or perhaps one
can’t be critical at all?
DICK: You’re missing the point.
MEG: The point is, I think that this so-called cultural renaissance is actually 690
about patriotism. Which makes people like you very defensive.
DICK: That’s bull.

[The following dialogue occurs simultaneously.]

PIPPA: I think you’re the defensive one in this instance. I didn’t read the
Guardian … 695
EDWIN: It wasn’t worth reading, I think that’s the point.
DICK: It was a highly contentious set of opinions.
EDWIN: Which actually misrepresented everything that Meg was on about.
DICK: So you’re going to retract that now, are you? That’s not what you
meant at all. It was the media’s fault. 700
MEG: No, I’m not retracting anything. I stand by what I said.
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HILARY: What did you say?

MEG: I said that Australians are terrified of any expression of passion.
Unless of course the passion is about making money. Oh, and sport.
Then that’s all right. The cultural heroes, the real cultural heroes are 705
good blokes who make a lot o’ dough, don’t take themselves too
seriously and have no pretensions whatsoever about their intellect.
You see, you all think I’m terribly pretentious because I take myself
seriously. Because I referred to myself as an ‘artist’. You think that’s
pompous bull, don’t you? 710
MARGE: No. I don’t.
DICK: I do.
MEG [turning to her sisters]: And you do too, don’t you?
PIPPA: Yeah, I do. ’Cause you’re trying to lay a claim that what you do is
more important than anyone else. 715
MEG: I’m doing no such thing, Pip.
DICK: You are. That is precisely what the cultural movement of these past
two decades has been about. Making ‘culture’ accessible to ordinary
people.
MEG: You don’t think Melancholy is accessible – to ‘ordinary’ people? 720
MARGE: Oh yes, of course it is. Absolutely accessible …
PIPPA: It’s just your attitude, Meg.
MEG: Oh, now I have an attitude problem do I? [Pause.] Well let’s talk about
attitude shall we? What about when someone writes a novel and gets
no response from the people she knows. What can we understand 725
from that? That the novel itself is no good? Or is it something to do with
the attitude of the other people? Something to do with selfishness? Or
what about cowardice?
PIPPA: Cowardice? Meg. What about the cowardice of someone who can’t
talk about stuff openly so they have to go and put it in a book. 730
MEG: Pippa. I can’t believe I’m hearing this. From you.
HILARY: What do you want us to say, Meg? You’ve spent the whole time telling
us that you don’t write autobiography. You write fiction. Now I’ve had
to sit here and listen to all that when you know as well as I do that the
only difference is, you haven’t used our real names. 735

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EXTRACT 2

Taken from Sotoba Komachi by Yukio Mishima

These notes are intended to help you understand the context of the drama.

Sotoba Komachi was written by Yukio Mishima in the 1950s. The extract is an abridged version of the
whole play.

Noh is an ancient Japanese dramatic form dating from the fourteenth century and Sotoba Komachi
was originally written during this period by Kan’ami Kiyotsugu, a Noh actor, author and musician.

Mishima re-interprets this play for a twentieth-century audience. He retained the old woman, a heartless
beauty in her youth, who refused to give in to a lover until he visited for a hundred nights. Gradually a
poet becomes embroiled in the old woman’s story and acts it out with tragic consequences for him.

Mishima suggests that his plays should be adapted to suit modern locations wherever they may be
performed.

Characters

OLD WOMAN (in tattered rags)

POET (young man in his 20s)
MEN A, B, C (act as lovers and dancers)
WOMEN A, B, C (act as lovers and dancers)
POLICEMAN or WOMAN

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[A corner of a park.
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One and one make two,

two and two make four …

CURTAIN

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