Picnic at Hanging Rock
Adapted by Tom Wright
From the book by Joan Lindsay

Directed by Diane Robinson

Audition: Sat 27 Jan 2-5pm (South Hall) - You will be required for the full duration
Call backs: Mon 29th Jan 7-9pm (Studio) if required

Rehearsals from 10th March. 2 weekday evenings and Sunday mornings initially.
Production Dates 17 – 25 May 2024 in the Studio theatre.

Plot

In this chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s novel; 5 modern schoolgirls struggle to solve the mystery from 1900 - of the disappearance of 4 girls and their teacher on a school trip in the Australian outback. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community; as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real.

The main themes of Nature, Repression and British Colonialism will be explored as part of the rehearsal process. Rehearsals may well be quite physical in nature and will almost certainly use techniques used by physical theatre companies such as Frantic Assembly.

**We will be holding a workshop on Saturday 6th January to discover if our approach to creating physical material for the show is for you. Please note, attendance at the workshop is not a requirement of the audition process.

“This retelling of Joan Lindsay’s cult classic proves the themes remain relevant and will terrify the pants off you” The Guardian

Roles:

5 young Australian women (playing age 16 – 30)
The girls share the narration and play all the characters in the story.

Amber: plays herself, other characters, and is the main player of Michael.
Nikki: plays herself, other characters and is the main player of policeman and Irma
Arielle: plays herself, other characters and is the main player of Sara
Elizabeth: plays other characters, but is the only player of Mrs Appleyard
Harriet: plays herself, other characters, and is the main player of Albert

Auditions:

The audition will be a group audition and will be workshop in style. All auditionees are asked to come with 2 speeches prepared, please be familiar with the lines, but there is no need to learn them. Please prepare 1 speech from Group A and 1 from Group B.
Please just pick to the speeches you like, don’t worry about who says them.

Group A:
Amber: page 46 “Hanging rock” – “Of jackjumper ants”
Nikki: page 60 “Spelling” – “I learned from Miranda.”
Arielle: page 64 ‘Oh, Albert’ – “We mustn’t hate any one” (as a continuous speech.)
Elizabeth: page 26: “How do you mean you can’t?” – “Hanging rock.”
Harriet: page 50: “You don’t know Mike, Doctor” – “went into the scrub.”

Group B:
Nikki: page 15 “But Mademoiselle is not asleep” – “Undressed…” (page 16.)
Harriet: page 11: “Edith” – “Comes to that, Miss, why are you called Edith?”
Arielle: page 18: “The young Englishman” – “Belts”
Amber: page 11 “Irma says” – “while he is driving.”
Elizabeth: page 23 “Edith watches” – “What could be worse than being alone?”

We can supply a time-limited pdf version of the full script, but if cast you will be required to purchase your own hardcopy from the theatre.

There will be scripts available to use at the auditions.

To book an audition and request the pdf script, please contact Tamsin our Production Manager on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Any other questions, please contact me on Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Diane’s contact details: 07910331239.

NB. Anyone can audition for an NVT production, but cast/crew will need to become members if not already.