Picnic at Hanging Rock
‘The Rock is a nightmare, and nightmares belong in the past.’
The senior Theatre Studies class have just finished their provoking production of ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ – a recent adaptation of the classic Australian story that focuses on the horror of the event.
In 1900, three schoolgirls and their teacher go missing at Hanging Rock - only one of them would ever be seen again. In 1967 Joan Lindsay, a resident of St Kilda East, took a mysterious tale showing the Australian landscape and our colonial settlement to be at odds with each other and turned it into one that would haunt the Australian psyche for years to come. In 2019, 18 students of PCW and CBC, schools local to the area where Joan Lindsay lived, re investigate the myth and look to take control over the story by discovering the truth once and for all. During all these times the Rock remains the same.
Adapter of the Novel Tom Wright picks up on the turbulent nature of Australia’s settlement and the ability of the land to remember things the mind and history may forget.
‘Victoria is a thin layer of scum
Floating on a vast volcanic lake.
It is true that for the last few blinks of an eye this crust has held sure
The boiling magma below is forgotten
Or ignored
A truth we pretend we do not know
But quietitude is highly unusual in this part of the country
The normal state of affairs is emanations, eruptions,
Puncturing the veneer, spreading ash, pumice, and rock in liquid form.
In a geological sense, we sleep on a sea of flame
And all through our land, there are portals.
Gateways to eternal fire.
The doors of Hell.
This is Victoria.’
In our initial production meetings the students identified the following strands to explore and comment on to the audience:
Order and Conformity dictated by society and nature
Rebellion against one’s own femininity
The mystery and danger of new countries
The haunted, rough and decaying Australian landscape
Emotional and physical turmoil that displays a fragility of life
Within the world of the play, as the students investigated and the questions piled up, they become students of another time and while they do not discover the truth, they discover the power and control of nature around us and the control of the minds sub-conscious.
In this task, students are required to work collaboratively, creatively and imaginatively applying dramaturgy to their production roles. They are marked on their contribution to the development and performance of the play. An outstanding and memorable piece of work!
Rory Godbold - Learning Leader: Performing Arts
