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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
John Grant, a young Englishman, teaches in Tiboonda, a tiny railway junction on the far western plains of New South Wales. He sets off to spend his summer vacation in Sydney but doesn't make it beyond Bundanyabba, a nearby mining town known as 'the Yabba'. Stranded in town after losing all his money in a two-up game, he finds himself engulfed by the Yabba's claustrophobic, nightmarish, beer-fuelled stupor, an atmosphere compounded of repressed sexuality, squalid violence, and the sinister mateship of the locals. After being sexually assaulted by the town's alcoholic doctor, he attempts to hitchhike out of the town but is brought back by a truckie. In anger, he tries to shoot the doctor but ends up only shooting himself. After discharging himself from the hospital, Grant takes the train back to Tiboonda, resigned to another year of teaching.
Adaptations
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Wake in Fright
2019
single work
drama
'G’day. Welcome to the Yabba. Just passing through?
'It’s the best little town in the world. Things a bit grim? Chin up.
'John Grant is well-read, but an outback misadventure strands him—cashless and jobless—in a harsh and remote Aussie outpost, Bundanyabba.
'So, he makes new ‘mates’: they’re quick with a drink, but with every scull a dark violence lurches forward. Are these blokes fair dinkum, or is there something more sinister at the heart of this little Aussie town?
'On our Beckett Theatre stage, the entire world of Wake in Fright is conjured by the always-evocative Zahra Newman (The Book of Mormon) accompanied by a sonic assault from art-electronica band, friendships. Under the direction of Declan Greene, Kenneth Cook’s iconic work of Australian Gothic horror is felt in the flesh. Bring sunscreen, buy a beer and wear your ear plugs.
'Once we pierce the Yabba’s ocker veneer, you better be ready for the explosive brutality pent up inside.'
Source: Malthouse Theatre.
Notes
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This film forms part of Australian screen's collection 'Horror in Australian Cinema': http://aso.gov.au/titles/features/wake-in-fright/ (Sighted: 6/7/2012)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Back to the Yabba
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 28 August 2021; (p. 10)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
‘That’s Not Us’. Wake in Fright at 50, a Portrait of an Ugly Australia That Became a Cinema Classic
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 4 May 2021;'In recent years, Wake in Fright (1971) has cemented its reputation as one of the most important Australian films. But for decades after its release it was almost impossible to find a version to watch.' (Introduction)
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The Isolation at the Heart of Australian Horror
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , November 2020;'Australian horror films have always had a unique fascination with the continent’s landscape. Though the genre has evolved from the Ozploitation era into more complex territory, it remains moulded by the terra nullius myth and a colonial sense of disconnection from the land. '
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Dangerous Locations : The Missing Person in Australian Cinema
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Screen Education , no. 95 2019; (p. 64-71) -
“Weird Melancholy” and the Modern Television Outback : Rage, Shame, and Violence in Wake in Fright and Mystery Road
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: M/C Journal , vol. 22 no. 1 2019;'In the middle of the nineteenth century, Marcus Clarke famously described the Australian outback as displaying a “Weird Melancholy” (qtd. in Gelder 116). The strange sights, sounds, and experiences of Australia’s rural locations made them ripe for the development of the European genre of the Gothic in a new location, a mutation which has continued over the past two centuries. But what does it mean for Australia’s Gothic landscapes to be associated with the affective qualities of the melancholy? And more particularly, how and why does this Gothic effect (and affect) appear in the most accessible Gothic media of the twenty-first century, the television series? Two recent Australian television adaptations, Wake in Fright (2017, dir. Kriv Stenders) and Mystery Road (2018, dir. Rachel Perkins) provoke us to ask the question: how does their pictorial representation of the Australian outback and its inhabitants overtly express rage and its close ties to melancholia, shame and violence? More particularly, I argue that in both series this rage is turned inwards rather than outwards; rage is turned into melancholy and thus to self-destruction – which constructs an allegory for the malaise of our contemporary nation. However, here the two series differ. While Wake in Fright posits this as a never-ending narrative, in a true Freudian model of melancholics who fail to resolve or attend to their trauma, Mystery Road is more positive in its positioning, allowing the themes of apology and recognition to appear, both necessary for reparation and forward movement.'
Source: Author's introduction.
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Deepest Faults Laid Bare
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 20-21 June 2009; (p. 20)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
Outback Heart of Darkness
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 25 June 2009; (p. 20)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
Hell on Earth
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27-28 June 2009; (p. 17)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
Film of the Week
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 28 June 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
Nightmare Flashback
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 4 - 5 July 2009; (p. 14-15)
— Review of Wake in Fright 1971 single work film/TV -
Film Raised From its Slumber
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 March 2009; (p. 13) -
Cannes About to Wake with an Outback Fright
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 17 May 2009; (p. 7) -
Archive Unveils its Hidden Gems
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 June 2009; (p. 13) -
Outback Swipe Was Meant for Canada
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 11 June 2009; (p. 3) -
Fright of Their Lives
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 13 June 2009; (p. 4-5)
- Far West NSW, New South Wales,
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,