If Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock looms large in Australia’s cultural landscape, Peter Weir’s 1975 film, based on the book, looms even larger.
Anyone attempting a stage production of this story, therefore, has big shoes to fill. In this play, director Ian Michael and the team in Sydney Theatre Company’s production do that admirably.
Picnic at Hanging Rock was first adapted for a mainstage audience by Laura Annawyn Shamas in 1987. This adaptation by Tom Wright debuted at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre in 2016, where it was directed by Matthew Lutton.
Now, in Michael’s hands, the ‘Australian Gothic’ elements are ramped up, as is the presence of the Australian bush.
Where Lutton’s Hanging Rock was dominated by a large wardrobe (the item of furniture, not items of clothing), this production sees the stage covered in gum leaves. This reviewer wasn’t sure if they were real – but they looked real and crunched satisfyingly underfoot when the cast trod the boards.
James Brown’s inventive sound design adds to the pervasive bush feeling, with its allusions to cicadas, kookaburras and crows. Thankfully, there are no panpipes.
As in the film, a key element of the production is a focus on the ancient nature of Australia. It was A D Hope, in his poem ‘Australia’, who wrote, ‘They call her a young country, but they lie.’ The line resonates strongly with this play.
In such a vast and ancient land, where ‘civilisation’ is so thinly spread, who knows what mysteries – physical or otherwise – may lurk, waiting to be ‘discovered’ by modern interlopers?
This question is central to the story, where the nature of time and place are called into question after the mysterious disappearance of a group of schoolgirls during a picnic on St Valentine’s Day in the year 1900.
The cast does an excellent job giving form to these nebulous concepts. All five women adopt multiple roles, with all putting in strong performances, but Olivia DeJonge as Miss McCraw and Mrs Appleyard, and Masego Pitso as Sarah, are stunning.
Pitso draws gasps and even nervous chuckles from the audience with her portrayal of the character’s trauma and anguish, which includes blood-curdling screams and demonic cackling.
The play’s structure is enhanced by Trent Suidgeest’s lighting, which presages various events and highlights others. Transitions to new scenes are frequently accomplished by quick plunges into darkness; illumination returns at lightning speed, swiftly introducing different characters and backdrops.
Metre-high surtitles flash up above the actors on the Elizabeth Gadsby-designed set, providing further narrative clarity and lending the production a dramatic, even operatic air.
The story of Picnic at Hanging Rock hangs on mystery and things we cannot see. We don’t come away with any firm answers, but what we do leave with is a sense of curiosity about the strange land we live in, the human condition and even the nature of reality itself.
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We also get a strong sense of Australia’s sheer age, its mercurial nature and the fact that modern Australian culture sits like a thin veneer on this ancient land.
It’s a transcendental and mystical experience.
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Tom Wright
Adapted from the novel by Joan Lindsay
A Sydney Theatre Company production
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Director: Ian Michael
Designer: Elizabeth Gadsby
Lighting designer: Trent Suidgeest
Composer and sound designer: James Brown
Movement director and intimacy coordinator: Danielle Micich
Fight director: Tim Dashwood
Cast: Olivia De Jonge, Kirsty Marillier, Lorinda May Merrypor, Masego Pitso, Contessa Treffone
Tickets: $40-$125
Picnic at Hanging Rock will be performed at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House until 5 April 2025.
