The production is based on the novel by Joan Lindsay, newly-adapted for the stage by Tom Wright. Premiered in Melbourne in 2016, this version provides a new edge to the story by having all the roles, male and female, played by five women. Written in blank verse, he brings a vivid life to this haunting and enigmatic story.
“Picnic at Hanging Rock” is one of the great mystery stories of the 20th century. On Saint Valentine’s Day 1900, in the heat of the Australian late-summer, a party of school girls from Miss Appleyard’s Private Girls’ School goes on a day trip to the local geological wonder, “Hanging Rock”. In the sleepy haze of the afternoon, four girls set off to explore the rock … but three of them, and one school mistress, disappear without a trace! The ensuing search for the girls and the effect their disappearance has on the occupants of the school and on the local people leads to rumours and recriminations. Long-suppressed truths, sexual desires and obsessions surface which shake the late-Victorian order of the school. When one of the girls is found on the rock some weeks later, largely unharmed but with no memory of the events, the atmosphere reaches a boiling point which threatens to tear lives in the community apart.
Director: Tony Kingston Set Designer: Karl Pierce Costumes: Deborah Cocking
With: Laura Lizak, June Lowery, Gina Millington, Céline Planata, Martina Sardelli
Tickets €20 (students €10) from www.neimenster.lu or tel: 262052–444