REVIEW: PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, Part Of Australia’s Contemporary Mythology, Is Given New Life With Sydney Theatre Company’s New Staging

Friday 28th February 2025, 7:30pm, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House

Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK chills and thrills with Ian Michael’s (Director) crisp new production.  Based on Lindsay’s 1967 novel, which was included in the “Big Jubilee Read” list to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, this mysterious thriller is presented with economy so the source text remains the hero of the work.

For those that are unfamiliar with Lindsay’s novel or Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK centres on the mysterious disappearance of a group of schoolgirls and their teacher from a Valentines Day picnic in 1900.  While a purely fictional work, it is presented as if it may hold truths so therefore has found its way into modern Australian mythology, particularly due to Lindsay’s choice to leave the story unresolved at the time of original publishing. 

While Lindsay’s original had many characters that helped reinforce the flow on effect of the disappearances to the school and the community, Wright has distilled the performance to only require five performers who serve as narrators and the various characters which have been reduced those core to the story.  The choice to have each performer from the quintet of Olivia De Jonge, Kirsty Marillier, Lorinda May Merrypor, Masego Pitso and Contessa Treffone, share the characters at times, even in the same scene, adds to the ethereal legend nature of the story. 

Designer Elizabeth Gadsby reinforces the simplicity generated by the reduction in performers with a set design that comprises a rectangle of fallen leaves below an overhang of a white box frame that serves as a pseudo lid to the performance space.  The Hanging Rock or Ngannelong to the Indigenous Australians, is never recreated, allowing the audience to use their own imagination, fuelled by Lindsay’s words, rather than provide a projected image as one may have assumed might happen with the size of the white box which is instead used for surtitles.  The five performers are initially clad in contemporary Private School uniforms which starts the work as a retelling of a myth though Irma (Marillier) returns after being found in the layers of long white lace and muslin common to an Edwardian Era lady, the only real concession to the era, and Treffone dons trousers inkeeping with the school uniform as she takes on the character of Mike Fitzherbert, the Englishman that had picnicking nearby on the day the students went missing. 

Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design is captivating in its ability to enhance the mood, with enough haze to highlight the spotlights on the five schoolgirls faces as they retell the story for Act 1, capturing every nuanced expression, to the bolts of light that reveal or hide suspenseful moments and add to the mystery.  James Brown’s sound design and composition takes the audience to the bush while also giving ‘sound’ to the energy of the environment that while bright and sunny on the summer day, held a foreboding.  While Lindsay was silent on the significance of the land to the Indigenous population, Brown’s sound conjures the idea of an unseen force connected to the environment and ancient rituals. 

The ensemble for this production are well matched, delivering a tight 85 minute performance with clarity and wonderful characterisations.  As each performer contributes to the narration and gives voice and dramatic expression of the characters, they ensure that the shifts are easily recognisable with vocal and physical variety.  For the narration, there is often a classically trained sound while the characters are given accents, from the French Mademoiselle to the English Michael and the working class Australian coachman, Albert, amongst others.  As the story progresses the performers are more closely connected to characters.  De Jonge gives Headmistresses Mrs Appleyard a harsh severity as she takes out her frustration of the scandal on the orphan Sara.  Masego Pitso highlights the affect of the psychological abuse Sara receives with a palpable fear paired with a defiance to comply with the headmistresses unreasonable demands.  Kirsty Marillier gives the recovered Irma a haunted disconnected aura as the young woman remains psychologically traumatised from her time lost at the Rock.  As coachman and orphaned Albert, Merrypor ensures that the cynicism borne of a life of abuse and neglect at the hands of the orphanage system is clear while still showing the ability for compassion and loyalty.  As the Englishman who seeks to satisfy himself that the students cant be found, Treffone gives Michael an air of confidence paired with a degree of obsession and eventually an expression that he too has been affected by the unknown forces of the environment. 

This production is captivating and holds the requisite level of suspense for the mystery thriller.  Ian Michael informs the work with an undertone of respecting the nature of the land and the traditional owners with the final scene reinforcing that the Europeans that sit as the focal point of the story weren’t the first to be associated with he land and others hold a greater understanding of the territory.   This production of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a great way for audiences to reengage with this gothic story in the 21st century.