Picnic at Hanging Rock (stage version) (NHB Modern Plays)

'I know you're there... Miranda? Miranda!' On a summer's day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock... In Tom Wright's chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay's classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real. This adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was first co-produced by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth, and first performed at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in 2016. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in 2017. 'This retelling of the Joan Lindsay cult classic proves the book's theme remains relevant - and will terrify the pants off you.' - Guardian

Joan Lindsay was born in November 1896 in Melbourne where she went to school at Clyde Girls Grammar in East St Kilda. She knew and loved the Macedon district, the setting for Picnic at Hanging Rock, from early childhood. She studied at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, Melbourne, and, as well as her career as a novelist, exhibited watercolour and oil paintings throughout her lifetime. Her other novels included Through Darkest Pondelayo and Time Without Clocks. Her most famous novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, was published in 1967 to critical acclaim, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 1975, directed by Peter Weir. The book continues to be considered as one of the most important Australian novels of all time. In 1922 in London, Joan married Sir Daryl Lindsay. The Lindsays travelled together in Europe and the USA, Daryl with his paints and Joan with her typewriter. Sir Daryl died in 1976. Joan lived at their country home on the Mornington Peninsula, Mulberry Hill, Victoria, Australia. She died in December 1984.