Due to important life changes for the show’s creative team, Griffin will no longer be presenting Wake in Fright in June/July as originally planned. Instead, we are excited to announce that Wake in Fright will close out our 2026 Season with a bang at Carriageworks!

Please find some answers to a number of FAQs regarding the season update here.

★★★★½ “Miraculous”—The Sydney Morning Herald
★★★★½ “Brilliant, bold and deeply unnerving theatre”—The Age
★★★★½ “Powerful”—ArtsHub
★★★★ “Remarkable”—Time Out
★★★★ “Striking”—Limelight Magazine

Welcome to Bundayabba—the best little town in the world! 

You’ll never want to leave. And even if you did… You can’t.

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. 

In a ferocious solo performance, Zahra Newman delves into the twisted heart of Wake in Fright—Kenneth Cook’s cult Australian novel and, later, an iconic horror film. Directed by Declan Greene (Naturism, The Lewis Trilogy) with thrilling, bone-rattling score from friendships, this bold adaptation is a descent into a uniquely Australian kind of hell: full of booze, bravado and buried violence. 

Buy a beer, drink up and make sure you wear your earplugs.