PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
The performance was eerily beautiful and intense . The costumes were ghostly in the flickering candlelight and each scene began with a phrase scratched onto a blackboard , leaving the audience to guess at what was to come . The brilliant acting brought the genteel early 20th century facade to life as the story ’ s sinister undertones were revealed . On the defining trip to Hanging Rock , the three girls – played charmingly by Antonia Norris , Anna Volini Panos and Somto Chukwuma – carried the audience along with them as they explored the rocks and led us to their haunting fate along with themselves .
Three girls go on a picnic with their teachers to Hanging Rock . They decide to venture up the Rock , but none of them could have predicted what would happen …
Welcome to Australia .
The unknown has always been exciting , but after two years of living in a world riddled with uncertainty , you would think our tolerance for mystery was pretty high and that it no longer produced the same intrigue it once did . Yet within just a term , Miss Jay and the Lower Sixth had created a chilling and truly captivating retelling of Joan Lindsay ’ s Picnic at Hanging Rock . It followed the story set in 1900 of the sudden disappearance of schoolgirls who were on a picnic at Hanging Rock – a geological formation and sacred Australian site – and the consequences of this for the surrounding community .
With the girls missing in this climactic and intense scene , the decorous community began to break down ; driving the stern headmistress of the school , once a symbol of all the Victorian conservatism of the day , and played fiercely by Ife Oke , into a malevolent , drunken state . The recipient of her wrath was Sara , played by Sofia Molinaro , who stood defiantly and admirably against her imperious mistress . As the investigation into the girls ’ disappearance went on , the play began exploring the impact of such an inexplicable situation on the wider community ; it drew seemingly unsuspecting bystanders , like the timid and impressionable Michael ( Charles FitzGerald ) and the contrasting Albert ( Max Joseph ), into the nightmarish confusion surrounding Hanging Rock . The disappearance showed its destructive effect on all the characters through their performances , as an answer was sought , and fingers pointed . In a delirious monologue , Somto Chukwuma amazed the audience with her terrifying performance of the girl who returned from Hanging Rock .
But the disappearance could never be explained and in her final soliloquy , with all her grace and power gone , the headmistress showed a world broken by the forces of conspiracy , mystery and guilt . Miss Jay and the Lower Sixth ’ s Picnic at Hanging Rock was an eerie performance that held beauty in its sinister mystery while serving as comment on the devastation of a community in the wake of a crisis – perhaps an appropriate warning !
Jonjo Hodson , Lower Sixth
42 DRAMA REVIEW