Review: Picnic At Hanging Rock

**Picture**: *Picnic at Hanging Rock* cast (Téa Paige, Leah Fitzgerald-Quinn, Libby Harrison, Jules Broun and Malika Savory). Production image credit: *Creative Futures Photography*

Congratulations to Director/Designer/Producer Lachlan Driscoll (and Rebecca Lynne, Stage Manager/Assistant Director) on the second show in the 2023 Observatory Theatre Season. Driscoll has selected an excellent cast for this challenging work, placing Tom Wright’s fascinating adaptation of Joan Lindsay's 1967 Picnic at Hanging Rock novel in the intimate Yeerongpilly Studio 1 space.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian gothic fairytale about a 1900 school summer outing that is the catalyst for a sequence of tragedies. On the day of the fateful picnic three schoolgirls and their teacher climb the notorious Hanging Rock, but only one member of the group is ever seen again—and the story then builds toward the deaths of two more school residents.

Wright’s play is a text-heavy poetic work that teases out the story through pieces of evidence, presented as the memories and interactions between a variety of individuals. Performed by five actors, the work has a ‘show within a show’ aspect. In this production four of the actors are dressed in contemporary state school uniforms, evoking a sense of a playground ‘game’ to explore what really happened in the historic tale. All of which means that a strong cast is essential for this play.

Congratulations to Malika Savory, Libby Harrison, Jules Broun, Leah Fitzgerald-Quinn, and Téa Paige on their portrayals of the school staff, students, and sundry characters. It is impressive to watch the craft of each actor, switching between male and female characters through tone of voice, accent and posture. At the Preview, I particularly enjoyed the unravelling of the headmistress (Libby Harrison) and increasing fragility of the girl who was left behind (Malika Savory), and the presentation of the male characters by the ‘schoolgirls’ (for example by Leah Fitzgerald-Quinn)—where my favourite moments were Michael and Irma’s gloriously awkward tea drinking, and the confronting scene between the headmistress and Sara.

For over fifty years, the Picnic at Hanging Rock story has engaged audiences in debates as to whether this is a murder mystery that might draw on actual events (it doesn’t). But this play encourages audiences to understand the narrative less as a ‘how’ or ‘who’ crime thriller, and more as a debate about colonialisation. The role of the private school in attempting to enforce repressive ‘rules’ of language, time, dress, and posture in the vain attempt to control and regulate the untameable ‘wilderness’/natural landscape is a strong theme—enculturation slightly drunkenly referred to by the headmistress as a country which ‘needs to be brought to heel,’ where a student responds by questioning whether any of the lessons taught at the school prepare the students for their life in the Australian landscape.

In this 2023 Observatory Theatre production, Driscoll opts for traverse or alley staging—where the audience is seated on two sides of the space with the play performed in the middle. The set places the action in the school (and particularly the classroom); at one end of the performance space is a ransacked chest of drawers, and at the other is a large chalkboard. But the Australian landscape is omnipresent—including the frequent ‘presence’ of the rock, as suggested by the frozen poses of the ensemble. I liked these creative ideas, but occasionally found each distracting. Using the blackboard for ‘crime-mapping’ and highlighting key phrases and information—including the memorable ‘nightmares belong in the past’—was great, but the drawing did sometimes distract me away from key moments elsewhere on stage. Equally, the stylised posing was effective, but I did wonder if the rock and natural environment might have been conveyed in a different way.

It is great to have a Brisbane theatre company that takes on relatively new and challenging works, and gives opportunities for local actors to shine. Having left the Preview to the sounds of the very appropriate GANGgajang’s Sounds of Then (This is Australia), I am still thinking about the nature/culture issues and the work of the five talented actors in this production. It was great to see a reinterpretation of this Australian classic, and to be challenged to think more deeply about the themes of colonisation, male-female power relations, and the nature of truth. All of which means that I can’t wait for the next show in Observatory Theatre’s 2023 Season.

Verdict: A challenging work, with strong performances by five talented local actors.

Catherine Lawrence

**Picture**: *Picnic at Hanging Rock* (Credit: Creative Futures Photography)

Audience information: Picnic at Hanging Rock has ten performances, including two previews (Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11-20 August 2023), Studio 1, Yeerongpilly. 85 minutes (no interval). Strict lockout applies, with no late admission. Mature themes: I suggest 15+. Tickets $25-40 plus $2.50 booking fee (general admission). Accessible event with $20 wheelchair tickets ($22.50 including booking fee and complimentary companion seat). Ticketholders can access a 10% food and drink discount at Slipstream Brewing Company. Free onsite and street parking available.

For more, I suggest turning to Observatory Theatre’s excellent Third Eye publication, as Edition 2, Echoes and Shadows, includes a number of thought-provoking Picnic At Hanging Rock articles.

The reviewer attended the first preview performance (7:30pm, Friday 11 August, 2023).

Geoff Lawrence