Joan Lindsay's novel is best known from Peter Weir's film, which combines her enigmatic Australian-gothic narrative with dreamy photography and a lot of Zamfir Panpipes. Caitlin Baker's staging of Tom Wright's adaptation cuts closer to the core - delivering the story on an earthy stage, shared between five performers, with a rawer edge - no languid dreaminess or pan pipes, and leaning more into a gothic rawness as the disappearance of a group of girls on a Valentine's Day picnic spreads aftereffects across those aroud them - two men caught up in the search, one of their schoolfriends, and the headmistress of the school.
The story begins with the five in school uniform telling the story of the fateful picnic, very much an ensemble, trading description and dialogue together as we get a sense of these young inquisitive women finding their space in the world before they find something beyond their understanding. We then fall into the aftereffects as the performers split into separate roles as headmistress (Karina Hudson), a young visiting englishman (Thea Jade), a young student (Jessi Gooding), a serving man (Paris Scharike) and the one girl who comes back (Breanna Kelly) face the after-effects as the mystery reverberates against them. Hudson has the best material as the headmistress spirals out of control as the school collapses around her, and manages the tension between her imperious front and the chaos underneath that she falls into. Breanna Kelly impresses both as the questioning cop early on and as the bewildered survivor later in the text. Paris Scharkie sells Albert's gentleness and kindness, while Jessi Gooding shows how deeply Sara is lost in mourning the disappeared friends and her disconnection from the school. Thea Jade gives Michael a brooding intensity as his quest consumes him.
Caitlin Baker uses the resources of the ACT Hub and lighting designer Disa Swiftie and sound designer/composer Paris Scharike to tell the tale tightly, To a certain extent, Linday's story is a colonial nightmare, as those who think they can bring European values and society to a country older than them find themselves very much lost at sea, and Baker gives full effect to that - blending the space between the Victorian era of the story and now, mixing modes between drama, dance, horror and intellectual insight.
This is the story you may know in a form you probably don't, and it's told with skill and verve from a strong company and production team.
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