On St. Valentine’s Day in the year 1900, three school girls and their teacher mysteriously disappeared from a picnic to Hanging Rock, deep in the Australian bush...

In 2018, the Acting Out Theater Organization at Northeastern University produced a stage adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s gothic folktale. As lead director and production designer for the  adaptation, the piece sought to  immerse audiences in the tension of “horror theater.”

A script was adapted from Tom Wright’s play script of the novel in order to expand the number of players in the cast. In addition to the characters of Appleyard College, three “Muses of the Rock” were incorporated who served as enigmatic storytellers. A cast of 16 were directed and choreographed over the course of three months to bring the story to life.

The set took from Lindsay’s depictions of the natural landscapes of Australia, incorporating live plants, palm trees, and grassy turf. Costume design captured the restriction of Victorian society, a direct and exciting contrast to the wild nature of the play’s setting. Sound and lighting design straddled the line between immersive, natural settings and the eerie fever dream that unravels as the result of the picnic.

The marketing campaign for the show was also designed to convey the mystery of the folktale. Missing posters and digital clues gave only hints as to the terrible events to come.

The underlying meaning behind Picnic at Hanging Rock has remained ambiguous for decades. It is perhaps a critique of social conservatism, violent colonialism, or the struggle to find identity in a world ever spinning out of control. This production did not seek to answer the novel’s own questions and instead allow the silent monolith to haunt the minds of an unsuspecting audience.