As the title suggests, the show is concerned with our great fascination with disappearance in Australian culture: Picnic at Hanging Rock, the Harold Holt disappearance, and recent films such as Wolf Creek. It opens with the audience confronted by a large black curtain and a solitary chair with which performer Alirio Zavarce begins to tell us of his fascination with the idea of losing his own identity, disappearing, until his climax where he actually succeeds.
It then delves into familiar territory as the large black curtain is drawn revealing a scene from Picnic at Hanging Rock and a large geo-dome which almost reaches the top of the performance space. Rory Walker, dressed as ‘headmistress’, is flanked by four school girls played by Katherine Fyffe, Jude Henshall, Ksenja Logos and Astrid Pill. A short reincarnation of the film takes place on stage until the girls have scaled the geo-dome, and disappear from the auditorium. The third and final part of the show is an abstract emotional exploration of the themes of disappearing, an invigorating soundscape is created by Andrew Russ, which is at times reminiscent of being in Nightmare on Elm Street—but which is effective in maintaining the audience’s attention—when the lack of story line has lost us for good. There are superb performances from all the players including 10-year-old Melissa Pullinger, but the piece must be viewed for what it is, and emotional exploration into the psyche, it delves into the fascination of ‘Disappearance’ and doesn’t give any answers