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Enigmatic figures in an ancient Australian landscape
Privilege under threat: Picnic at Hanging Rock
[Pia Johnson]
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Picnic at Hanging Rock
Barbican Centre, London
ON ST Valentines Day in 1900, three teenage schoolgirls and their maths teacher inexplicably and permanently vanished while on a picnic to Australia’s ancient landmark Hanging Rock.
That fictional mystery, originally conceived as a novel by Joan Lindsay in 1967, was later the source for Peter Weir's film and has now been adapted for the stage in this production by Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre company.
The social and cultural contradictions of Australian society are implicit in the narrative and offer fertile ground for multiple interpretations. A vast land, undisturbed for millennia by external influence, Australia’s unique flora, fauna and indigenous culture has in the past four centuries been contaminated by colonial intrusion, exploitation and abuse.
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