Opening Night: 29 May 2021
Author: Joan Lindsay
Title: Picnic at Hanging Rock. A new play adapted from Joan Lindsay's novel
Stage adaptation, dramaturgy: Małgorzata Maciejewska
Director: Lena Frankiewicz

Auditorium: Boguslawski Hall 
Running time: 2 hours 15 min including one interval


Ticket prices:

full-price tickets:
zone I: 120 PLN
zone II: 110 PLN
zone III: 100 PLN

concession tickets:
zone I: 85 PLN
zone II: 75 PLN
zone III: 65 PLN

rush ticket:
40 PLN  more info

students of state theatre and art schools: 
15 PLN more info

Picnic at Hanging Rock. A new play adapted from Joan Lindsay's novel

The new theatrical version of the Australian prose classics.

1900. On a hot, stormy day, Mrs Appleyard's boarding school residents go on a picnic near Hanging Rock. With the permission of a teacher, the girls go for a walk in the countryside. Only one of them returns. What did she see? What will she say? Why will nothing ever be the same anymore?

In the role of Mrs Appleyard – Ewa Wiśniewska.


Please mind that cigarette smoke appears in some scenes during the show.


director: Lena Frankiewicz
stage adaptation and dramaturgy: Małgorzata Maciejewska
set, costume and lighting design: Katarzyna Borkowska
music: Cezary Duchnowski
choreography: Marta Ziółek
video: Natan Berkowicz
stunt & special effect: Andrzej Słomiński

 

The play contains excerpts from Die Traumdeutung by Sigmund Freud and notes from The Journals of Captain James Cook.

 

Cast


Production team

  • director's assistant: Maciej Jaszczyński sound technicians: Marek Szymański, Hubert Majewski, Mariusz Maszewski
    •  
  • light technicians: Zbigniew Szulim, Bartłomiej Kaczalski, Krzysztof Łukasz Stefan
  • video projection: Mariusz Chałubek, Paweł Woźniak
  • stage manager: Katarzyna Kłosowska-Kobiałka
  • prompter: Magdalena Markowska




Licence for this stage production was granted by the Society of Authors – ZAiKS.


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