It’s 50 years since the release of Peter Weir’s film adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock. No better time to revisit Tom Wright’s 2016 stage adaptation, in which five schoolgirls in uniform retell the story and, in doing so, become possessed by its mythic power and sexual undertones.

Directed by Ian Michael – the most exciting director working at State company level right now – this is a fiercely vivid and exquisitely made 90 minutes of theatre.

Olivia De Jonge in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Photo © Daniel Boud

Designer Elizabeth Gadsby’s set is monumental, dominated by a huge four-sided enclosure that hangs ominously above the actors, who deliver the script’s opening pages standing in a line, addressing the audience as though on a speech day. That formality breaks down somewhat as the staging progresses, though it remains a hallmark of the play’s choreography.

Wright’s script is poetically condensed, punchy and occasionally inscrutable. Some familiarity with the book or film doesn’t hurt, but neither is it necessary. Scenes are short and punchy, prefaced by metre-high surtitles.