Northcote Town Hall Season 2010

Wake in Fright

from the novel by Kenneth Cook

adapted and directed by Bob Pavlich

“May you dream of the Devil and wake in fright.” An Old Curse

Eager to escape his one-room outback school for the summer holidays, young city teacher, John Grant, heads toward Sydney. Passing through the rough mining town of Bundanyabba, Grant becomes hopelessly stranded, losing his entire wages in a game of two-up and over the subsequent five days sinks into a cycle of drunkenness, hangovers, fumbling sexual encounters and increasing self-loathing. Trapped in a hellish limbo, the once ordinary world of rural Australia becomes the setting for his grotesque and surreal nightmare.

Wake in Fright explores the very real distrust that exists between city and the bush and is an unflinching depiction of Australian masculinity that is as pertinent today as it was when written in 1961.

The 1971film version was lost for twenty years, the footage vanishing in vaults and nearly destroyed, and was only recently rediscovered, restored and re-released in 2009. And now, La Trobe University Student Theatre and Film is proud to present the very first theatrical adaptation of this classic story.

With Beth Myring, David Wright, George Lingard, Jacob Pruden, Kurt Mottershead, Laura Wheelwright, Matthew Bolger-Hobson, Matt Sharawara and Stephen Foster; this production, directed and adapted by the Artistic Director of Student Theatre, will shed new light on this already well-known harrowing tale.

­­

PERFORMANCES

Tuesday 17 August 8pm – Gala Opening

Thursday 19 August, Wednesday 25 August, and Friday 27 August 8pm

Saturday 21 August and Sunday 29 August 8.30pm

Sunday 22 August and Saturday 28 August 6pm

TICKETS

Full $15 / Concession $10 / Guild $5