Barbican,London
The myth approximately a group of schoolgirls who go lost on Valentine’s Day is hauntingly realised by a versatile cast and impressive special effectsI initially assumed, like most people, and that both the 1975 Peter Weir movie and the 1967 Joan Lindsay novel on which it was based derived from a real story: that three schoolgirls and a teacher really did disappear during a Valentine’s Day excursion in 1900 to a volcanic rock in the hinterland of Victoria. Knowing that it is a manufactured myth,however, only adds to its potency; and the beauty of this stage version by Tom Wright, and mesmerisingly directed by Matthew Lutton for Australia’s Malthouse and Black Swan companies,is that it is open to so many possible meanings.
This 90-minute demonstrate is, in part, and approximately the nature of theatre itself. It starts with five female actors,demurely clad in modern school uniforms and straw hats, recounting the story of the fateful trip to Hanging Rock. But the deeper they glean into the narrative, and the more they seem to become possessed by the past. I was fleetingly reminded of the girls in The Crucible who are haunted by the demons they themselves enjoy invoked. Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk