Australia, 1900. An ancient land becomes the site of an impossible mystery. A group of schoolgirls and their teachers venture out into the sundrenched landscape, only for four of their number to disappear forever.
The subsequent investigation creates more questions than answers. One of the girls is found with no memory of what happened to her or her classmates, another succumbs to hysteria for no apparent reason. Those close to the missing girls begin to meet with unfortunate ends and it becomes clear that this is no ordinary disappearance.
In Tom Wright's chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay's classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout Appleyard College, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a story that defies explanation, a story that proves that horror is a warm, sunny day.
Joan Lindsay (1896–1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and artist, best known for her 1967 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock.
She was born Melbourne, Australia, where she went to school at Clyde Girls Grammar in East St Kilda. She knew and loved the Macedon district, the setting for Picnic at Hanging Rock, from early childhood. She studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne, and, as well as her career as a novelist, exhibited watercolour and oil paintings throughout her lifetime.
Her other novels included Through Darkest Pondelayo and Time Without Clocks. Picnic at Hanging Rock was published in 1967 to critical acclaim, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1975, directed by Peter Weir. The book continues to be considered one of the most important Australian novels of all time.
In 1922 in London, Joan married Sir Daryl Lindsay. The Lindsays travelled together in Europe and the USA, Daryl with his paints and Joan with her typewriter. Sir Daryl died in 1976. Joan lived at their country home on the Mornington Peninsula, Mulberry Hill, Victoria, Australia. She died in December 1984.
<br /><br />
Tom Wright is an Australian theatre writer, mostly known for his adaptations and translations. He was born and educated in Melbourne. He was a member of Barrie Kosky's Gilgul Theatre in the 1990s, was Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company 2004–2012, and is currently Associate Artist at Belvoir, Sydney.
His plays and adaptations include Picnic at Hanging Rock, A Journal of the Plague Year, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Ubu, This Is a True Story, Lorilei, Babes in the Wood, Tense Dave, The Odyssey, The Lost Echo, Criminology (with Lally Katz), Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Women of Troy, The War of the Roses, The Duel, Baal, Optimism, Oresteia, On the Misconception of Oedipus, The Histrionic and Black Diggers.
