AustLit logo

AustLit

Tunnel Rat single work   drama   war literature  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Tunnel Rat
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In the dark basements of an ancient city, in the depths of the Vietnamese Chu Chi Tunnels in 1968 a 17 year old United States soldier is ordered, because he is short, to go down the tunnels to look for the enemy - another tunnel rat is born.

At 17 our protagonist Ronnie Giles was given the option of Vietnam or jail, he chose Vietnam. Ronnie comes to us as an older man; wiser but troubled. He cannot remove the image of the woman he killed deep within the enemy's tunnels. His experienced psychiatrist Lucy, a child of Holocaust survivors, works him through his nightmares. By the ned of the psychiatric sessions both Ronnie and Lucy learn a bitter-sweet truth, same same but different ....

In its own way "Tunnel Rat" explores the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder and what is important to people and a nation.' Source: www.mentalhealthvic.org.au/ (Sighted 28/10/2011).

Production Details

  • World premiere presented by the Melbourne Jewish Theatre Trust at Benalla Performing Arts and Convention Centre (BPACC) , 23 October 2011 and then at The Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank, 25 October - 5 November 2011. It will then tour to Chicago. Director: Tatiana Grasso.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Digging Deep into a Killer's Troubled Mind Elly Varrenti , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 October 2011; (p. 21)

— Review of Tunnel Rat Neil Cole , 2011 single work drama
Digging Deep into a Killer's Troubled Mind Elly Varrenti , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 27 October 2011; (p. 21)

— Review of Tunnel Rat Neil Cole , 2011 single work drama
Last amended 28 Oct 2011 12:12:08
Settings:
  • c
    Vietnam,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X