Review: THE HANGING Is A Modern Day Mystery That Echoes An Australian Classic

Tuesday 2nd August 2016, 8pm, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company

Angela Betzien's contemporary thriller, THE HANGING, explores the challenges of growing up, the need to belong, and the desire to protect in a world where young girls are expected to be young ladies that are seen but not necessarily heard. This new Australian work also weaves in the classic Australian story "PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK", mirroring it in many respects as a modern day disappearance unfolds on stage.

For this three hander Director Sara Goodes has blended live drama and video montage to expose the mystery of the disappearance of two teenage girls. Precocious fourteen year old Iris Hocking (Ashleigh Cummings), a boarder at a prestigious Geelong Girls School, holds the secret to her missing friends. As Detective Sergeant Flint (Luke Carroll) tries to get to the bottom of mystery Iris has chosen her prickly English Teacher Ms Carrossi (Genevieve Lemon) to be the responsible adult present at the interview. As well as the disappearance, many secrets and personal issues get uncovered giving an insight into the challenges of youth and maturity.

Designer Elizabeth Gadsby has created a layered set that divides the unusually shaped Wharf 1 stage and makes use of the two storey space. At first look, a modern office juts out from a single storey height grey stone wall and it is not until the opening prelude drops to silence as the lights go out to reveal projections against the stone and the white expanse behind the diagonal wall. David Bergman's video of the Australian bush and three girls in sun dresses which forms the backdrop for a young girl on the top of the stone wall sets the tone of the work as a thriller. Gadsby's choice of costuming for the lost girls also helps to highlight the parallels Betzien has drawn with Joan Lindsay's novel PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and separates the girls' escapist adventures from the 21st century reality that their disappearance has thrown into chaos.

As the young Iris, Ashleigh Cummings is delightful as she captures the contrasting confidence and insecurity of youth as she toys with Detective Sergeant Flint as he tries to interview her. She presents the intelligent young woman with the cheekiness and caginess seen in teenage girls that want to bargain and find out how much their knowledge is worth whilst having a flightiness and distractedness that sees her interrupt the proceedings at various times. Given Iris' education at a respected ladies college, Cummings creates a balanced accent of refinement and education whilst still ensuring Iris still sounds like an Australian adolescent.

Luke Carroll is wonderful as he gives the seemingly severe Detective Sergeant Flint a sensitivity in keeping with his role as a specialist in child protection cases. He shows the internal conflict between his procedures that require he remain professional, distant to get the answers to solve the case and his own humanity and compassion as a father that wants to comfort the troubled child who feels more at home at a boarding school than with her parents. He also has nuanced reactions to Genevieve Lemon's portrayal of the grumpy and exacting English teacher.

Lemon captures the severity of the feared teacher as she pulls up Flint for incorrect grammar in the same way she would her students whilst also giving glimpses to the care and concern she has for Iris and the missing girls. She also exposes the growing regret that she did not do more when she could as Iris reveals more of her inner turmoil. As with Cummings, Carroll and Lemon capture the truth and realism of their roles with recognisable mannerisms, tone and pace from Carroll's use of silence to illicit answers and Lemon's physicality as she humpfs in suffering from the heat of the Australian summer.

THE HANGING is an engaging and interesting new Australian work that utilises characters Australian audiences can relate to unravel a modern mystery whilst referencing another Australian story. Whilst not all Australian theatre goers may have come across an Australian police detective, it is highly likely that they knew or were taught by someone like Ms Corrossi and know a teenager, or can remember their own adolescence. Betzien and Goodes have captured characterisations that feel uniquely Australian and these works should be supported and promoted.

THE HANGING

Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company

28 July - 10 September 2016