‘Whose side are you on?’ The Slap (2011/2015)

Abstract

Based on the best-selling 2008 novel by Christos Tsiolkas, the eight-part Australian television mini-series, The Slap (Matchbox Pictures, 2011), generated widespread local interest when it premiered nationally on ABC1 television. An ensemble drama, The Slap follows the repercussions of a fateful moment at a suburban barbecue in multicultural Melbourne when an angry adult slaps a misbehaving child that is not his own (but who, arguably, may have deserved the slap). Promoted with the tagline ‘whose side are you on?’ each of the eight episodes of the series advances the story from the viewpoint of a different character, in the process allowing barely concealed tensions of class, gender and ethnicity to rise to the surface. Upon the release of the series, Tsiolkas noted the specificity of the drama, stating that its approach to multiculturalism ‘reflected the Australia that we do live in’, but the unique programme format attracted international interest, NBC/Universal announcing that it was set to remake the series in the US with Matchbox Pictures' show runner, Tony Ayres, as a co-executive producer. This essay engages critical frameworks of adaptation and translation studies to interrogate various formats of The Slap. It considers not only the cross-cultural remaking of the Australian mini-series for US television, but also the adaptation of Tsiolkas' high profile novel to ‘quality TV’ – in ABC's description, ‘a bold, provocative television drama series that forensically examines the mores and morality of contemporary middleclass life’ (The Slap, Official ABC website). This analysis consists not only of an interrogation of the industrial situations and narrative strategies of the mini-series, but also – and given that Tsiolkas' novel was heralded locally and internationally as a comment upon contemporary (post-conservative government) Australia – an understanding of its reception contexts.