Wake in Fright

Griffin Theatre Company close their stellar 2026 season with the critically acclaimed adaptation of Kenneth Cooks novel Wake in Fright, reuniting the Zahra Newman with Griffin’s Artistic Director Declan Greene seven years after its debut, from 2 – 19 December 2026 at Carriageworks.

Well-heeled schoolteacher John Grant is en route to Sydney, when a layover in the mining town of Bundanyabba turns into a three-week freefall. Stranded and starving, Grant is forced to rely on the locals for survival. But as the beer flows and the nights wear on, he finds himself stripped of money, identity and sanity.

This bold adaptation is a descent into a uniquely Australian kind of hell: full of booze, bravado and buried violence.