Perth Voice Interactive

PICNIC at Hanging Rock bursts onto the State Theatre stage in a cacophony of sound and fury bearing little resemblance to Joan Lindsay’s detailed descriptions of landscape and weather, or Peter Weir’s film, redolent of haunting music and ethereal shots of young women in diaphanous dresses, against the dark mystery of the Australian bush.

Tom Wright’s adaptation has the audience gripping the edge of its seat, and on more than one occasion jumping in fright, as figures rush from the inky darkness, or appear as if beamed in to Zoe Atkinson’s stark set.

Wright brings elements of Hitchcock, or 1960s The Twilight Zone, to Lindsay’s tale of a day out gone wrong and the disappearance of three girls and a teacher.

There’s none of the gentleness of the Weir film: following the disappearance a “policeman” aggressively interviews witnesses. The scene where three girls attack Irma, found a few days after the disappearances, is confronting as they violently demand answers.

It’s St Valentine’s day 1900 and the young ladies from Appleyard school are picnicking at Hanging Rock in Victoria’s Mt Macedon.

The story is told through five girls in modern school uniforms, beginning with a round as each deliver a short monologue from the novel’s opening.

Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Arielle Gray, Amber McMahon, Elizabeth Nabben and Nikki Shiels play all the roles, including the blokes.

The effect was at times confusing, and I’m still not sure why McMahon stripped down to her underwear as she shed the honourable Michael Fitz Hubert’s character to assume her school girl uniform again.

But there was no faulting her delivery as she moved from character to character.

Missing girls Miranada, Marion and Erma are minor players because it’s not what happened on the rock but the aftermath that’s important here.

That is shown in the chilling ruthlessness of Mrs Appleyard to the orphan Sarah — a cruelty that grows, as tensions increase over the missing girls.

Forty years after publication, Lindsay’s final chapter (originally written as its first) was released, supposedly revealing the “secret” of the girls’ disappearance, but it was almost as elusive as not knowing anything. This version won’t give you any answers, but it remains a haunting tale told in a unique form.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is on until April 17. Tix at ticketek.com.au or 1300 795 012.

by JENNY D’ANGER