★★★

It is, naturally, a dark and stormy night. Arriving at a theatre rain-bleary with clothes in dramatic disarray isn’t what one would ordinarily hope for when mingling with the industry’s most glamorous, but tonight it seems rather apt. After all, The Hanging is a production with both feet firmly secured in Australian Gothic; all we needed was a well-timed lightning strike or two and the scene would be complete.

As far as motifs are concerned, what playwright Angela Betzien addresses here is genuinely frightening. That the disappearance of youth into the Australian outback has become a trope is disturbing in itself, yet the question of why audiences are drawn to this theme again and again – from Picnic At Hanging Rock, itself a potent force within the play, to more recent contributors like Wolf Creek and Strangerland – is just as fascinating. Although this nuanced three-hander makes a fair attempt at explaining the mystery, some uneven performances prevent us from truly engaging.

Of three teenage girls who have gone missing in the bush, only Iris (Ashleigh Cummings) has been found. Despite attempts at uncovering what led to the girl’s disappearance six days earlier, Detective Sergeant Flint (Luke Carroll) has had little luck in breaking through Iris’s amnesia. Her English teacher, Ms. Corrossi (Genevieve Lemon), has been summoned to act as a familiar and supportive figure from the girls’ lives, though it gradually becomes apparent that Corrossi’s relationship to the missing teens is not quite as benign as first appears.

For a one-act thriller, it takes a deft hand to ensure there are no dull moments, and to Betzien and director Sarah Goodes’ credit, the pace is taut, and the sense that time is very much of the essence in locating the two remaining girls is strong. Yet despite an exceptional turn from Lemon – whose sardonic manner and wry ease has the audience eating from the palm of her hand – and a steady if standard performance from Carroll, the strength of the production was always going to lie with Cummings.

Despite the 23-year-old actor’s convincing teenage portrayal, and her increasing confidence as the story progresses, Cummings’ cat-and-mouse delivery nevertheless rings unnatural, and her movements too self-conscious. In fairness, her character is deliberately uncooperative and untrusting. But Iris never feels real, and as the play builds towards its dark resolution, we need to care far more for this troubled, terrified girl in order to truly connect.

The Hangingis playing at Wharf 1 Theatre until Saturday September 10.

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