Renée described herself as a "lesbian feminist with socialist working-class ideals", and her plays feature strong female characters who are often working class.

[7] Her early favourite works included Anne of Green Gables and books by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L.

[3] It was around this time, which coincided with the start of her writing career, that Renée chose to use only her first name as her professional name; she explained that this was because it was the name her mother gave her and the only name she felt was hers.

[8] Renée began writing short stories, reviews and humorous columns for newspapers around age 30 when her three children were young.

[7] While studying extra-murally at Massey University, Renée began working as an English and history teacher at Wairoa College.

[2][7] In 1979, ten years after starting her degree studies at the age of 40, Renée completed her Bachelor of Arts at University of Auckland.

[12] In a 1982 interview with New Zealand feminist magazine Broadsheet, Renée explained that her goal was to write a play with strong, intelligent and funny female characters with political themes.

Renée had the guts.Renée's best-known plays form a trilogy, beginning with Wednesday to Come (1984) which shows the effect on a family of the 1930s Great Depression in New Zealand.

[17] She also attended the Pacific Writers Conference in London and took part in a reading tour of Britain and Europe together with Patricia Grace.

[18][19][20] In addition to her plays, Renée also wrote a short-story collection, Finding Ruth (1987), and three novels in the 1990s which all feature themes of non-traditional families.

[24] Renée continued to write into her later years, with novels written in her 70s including The Skeleton Woman: A Romance (2002) and Kissing Shadows (2006).

[28] Shortly after her death The Spinoff published a series of tributes to Renée from Patricia Grace, Mary McCallum, Matariki Williams and many other New Zealand writers and readers.

[31] In the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, Renée was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature and drama.

[5][27] In 2017 she received the Playmarket Award, a $20,000 prize recognising a playwright who has made a significant artistic contribution to theatre in New Zealand.