PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK

About the show

Sydney Theatre Company Resident Director Ian Michael (Stolen, Constellations), “the most exciting new director of this generation” (Limelight) makes his Drama Theatre debut with this eerie, beautiful and visionary take on the gothic tale that changed Australian storytelling forever. Five modern teenage girls recount a story burnt into the Australian psyche. St Valentine’s Day, 1900. In the summertime heat of the Macedon Ranges, four schoolgirls sneak away from their excursion to climb the imposing monolith of Hanging Rock, pulled higher and higher by a mysterious force. All but one disappears without a trace. With a cast featuring some of this country’s finest young performers including Olivia De Jonge (Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis), Kirsty Marillier (Home, I’m Darling), Lorinda May Merrypor (& Juliet), Masego Pitso (Is God Is), and Contessa Treffone (On the Beach), this critically-lauded adaptation from Tom Wright (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) infuses the archetypal mystery with the chilling energy of twenty first-century horror while preserving the haunting enigma at its heart. Accompanied by sculptural design by Elizabeth Gadsby, atmospheric lighting by Trent Suidgeest and a dark and pulsing soundtrack from composer James Brown, this production cracks wide open one of the most famous fables of contemporary Australia. Unsettling and ethereal, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a heart-stopping and form-shattering investigation of innocence, cultural clash and the enduring power of the wilderness.