The Hanging

While no stranger to the drama of crime on stage, Angela Betzien [Mortido, The Dark Room] plays on the ambiguities of it in her latest The Hanging, which takes place as one of three schoolgirls missing from a prestigious boarding school returns alone and unable to remember. We know people are missing, but can't be certain what crimes - if any - have actually been committed.

Iris (Ashleigh Cummings), the one girl to return, is of little help; occupying a liminal space between dream/nightmare and reality, the embodiment of Elizabeth Gadsby's bare but effective design.

In Ms Corrossi we have a tremendous teacher — perhaps too tremendous — even accounting for her employment by a top private school. Admonishing all and sundry for incorrect grammar is one thing, and the peppering of poetry or philosophical quotes in conversation is something most of us would have endured when in the company of an English teacher, but musings on the Socratic method do little to add to the character of Ms Corrossi and threaten to shift the mood from an eerily off-kilter thriller to a less than thrilling lecture. Despite this, Genevieve Lemon's boisterous performance is strong, and leaves no doubt as to the origins of the nickname bestowed upon her by the students.

Detective Flint (Luke Carroll) is a mix of compassion and cunning, both manifest is his manner of questioning. Corrossi and Flint play parallels and comparisons are drawn between policing and pedagogy, and the roles both play in preparing and protecting citizens. It gives a dark new meaning to the idea of nature vs nurture.