Review - Picnic at hanging Rock - People's Theatre

Picnic at Hanging Rock 

People's Theatre

12th Oct 2026

Adapted by Tom Wright from the novel by Joan Lindsay

Directed by Matthew Hope and Erin Robinson

Cast: Ashleigh Gloyne, Oryssa Sahota, Ashton Matthews, Abii Smith, Lauren Urmson

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a strange tale. A group of students from a girls academy are taken on an outing to Hanging Rock in the Australian Bush. Before they leave the headmistress warns them to behave in a seemly manner as befits them as young ladies and students of the Appleyard Academy: they are not to explore the rocks. It's Valentine's Day and the girls heads are full of romance.  The weather is hot and oppressive. At the picnic the girls decide to investigate the rock - walking through the heat of the bush and climbing the rock. Strange things begin to happen - the girls are overcome by the vastness of the country and the rock, the strangeness of their surroundings. The heat becomes unbearable and the girls begin to experience strange feelings and sensations - they squabble amongst themselves, daring themselves to go further than is sensible. Afraid of what seems to be happening one girl goes back to the picnic area while the others continue to climb. Something mystical in the atmosphere of the rock overtakes them. A search ensues, and others experience the mystery of the rock but apart from one, the girls are never seen again. 

The set is minimal - packing crates, moved around by the cast members, serve as a horse-drawn carriage, seats in the school, a fallen log, and the ominous rock itself. A soundscape of bird calls - kuckaburras? - creates the atmosphere of the Australian bush. 

The play takes the form a dramatic storytelling - with each of the cast narrating sections of the story.  Each actor in this all female cast plays dual parts, including the male characters. They slip from one character to another almost imperceptibly. It is confusing and perhaps that is the intention - the events at Hanging Rock can't be explained, the characters themselves don't understand what is happening to them as they are overcome by the eerie, otherness of the landscape. Has something supernatural happened or have these impressionable young women simply been over come by heat and fanciful imaginings? 

The audience is left to draw its own conclusions. 

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an intense, challenging play - it put me in mind of Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Theroux's Mosquito Coast - questioning perceptions of the natural world and the idea of our own civilisation. We seek to control the things we do not understand, and in doing so simply create a different kind of wildness. 

This production will leave you with more questions than answers. It runs until 17th October. 

Denise Sparrowhawk

*images by Paul Hood