Earlier this month, Trent Dalton experienced a fresh wave of success as the Netflix adaptation of his novel Boy Swallows Universe won five awards at the Logies. Now, another book, Love Stories, will premiere at the Brisbane Festival in September.
The stage adaptation of Love Stories shares many of the same ingredients as the successful adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe in 2021. Both plays were directed by Melbourne director Sam Strong and adapted by Tim McGarry. Boy Swallows Universe became Queensland Theatre’s highest-selling show on record and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s (QPAC’s) highest-selling drama ever.
Dalton’s success is unique. Few Australian authors have experienced his level of commercial success. Love Stories, like Boy Swallows Universe, is unapologetic in celebrating Brisbane, Dalton’s home city. Dalton’s biography and writing mirror Brisbane’s development into a cultural hub.
Dalton’s childhood in 1980s Brisbane, the source of inspiration for Boy Swallows Universe, was streaked with violence and crime. Now in his mid-forties, Dalton’s work spans social affairs journalism and literary fiction. Alongside Bluey, Dalton has become one of Queensland’s and Australia’s most successful cultural exports.
Love Stories is a notably different beast from Boy Swallows Universe. It is not a singular narrative, but an anthology of real-life love stories. In 2021, Dalton spent two months on a Brisbane street corner asking passersby for love stories. The result was Love Stories, published in 2022.
‘It’s unapologetically romantic,’ Jason Klarwein tells ArtsHub. Klarwein plays a version of Dalton on stage for Love Stories. ‘Some of the real-life storytellers have come into rehearsal. And having them as a part of the process has been special.’
Michala Banas plays Klarwein’s wife, and the two represent Dalton’s own love story with his wife, Fiona Franzmann. Dalton and Franzmann have writing credits for the stage adaptation of Love Stories, alongside playwright Tim McGarry.
Sam Strong’s vision also incorporates contemporary dance and cinematic projection. Unlike Boy Swallows Universe, the stage adaptation of Love Stories will develop the original premise, according to the director. ‘Trent and Fiona’s own love story, which interweaves through the book, has been expanded by them for the stage show,’ Strong has said. ‘In addition, we’re including some of the incredible love stories that have been shared since the book was published.’
It is not the first time in Klarwein’s career that he’s played a character based on the playwright of the work. His last effort was playing the lead role in Michael Gow’s Once In Royal David’s City for Queensland Theatre in 2017 (also directed by Strong). Similar to that work, Klarwein plays an almost-but-not-quite version of the author.
‘I’m playing a part called “husband”,’ Klarwein tells ArtsHub. ‘I’m not doing an impression of Trent,’ he chuckles. ‘But it’s a little bit similar to Once In Royal David’s City in that the show is full of surprises and magic realism. And it’s my job to honour the audience’s experience through that story.’
Klarwein and Banas mirror Dalton and his wife, Franzmann. The increased focus on their own love story is perhaps the most significant difference between the play and the original text. ‘What I didn’t put in that book is a great truth,’ Dalton told the ABC. ‘I was going down to that corner to have conversations with 150 strangers to avoid a conversation I needed to have with my wife. I realise now that all those Brisbane strangers, I swear guys, they helped fix something in my marriage.’
While the play veers through many different real-life love stories, the focus on the “husband” and “wife” characters as a dramaturgical anchor gives the entire piece an important hinge point, suggests Klarwein. ‘Any long-term partnership is complicated,’ he tells ArtsHub. ‘You of course have dreams and aspirations, but you’re tied to earthly things. Normal, everyday stuff: children and work. And sometimes all those things align, but sometimes they conflict.’
The trio of co-writers in the play make for a unique theatrical project. ‘It’s quite egalitarian,’ Klarwein continues. ‘There’s a universal shared voice between them. You get a big range in the show. Comic love stories, filled with hope, but also stories of loss and grief. Because of that, you can’t help but reflect on your own experience of love. And between them, this thread traces back to home, place and people.’
Dalton’s literary success is often attributed to his ability to balance darkness and optimism. ‘Trent’s power is not only in his words – which are inherently so theatrical – but in his ability to scrutinise the complexity of what it is to be human with a heavy dose of heart and optimism that we can all connect with,’ according to QPAC CEO John Kotzas.
‘Trent and Fiona are intrinsically generous,’ Klarwein tells ArtsHub. ‘They’re both genuinely curious about people and how they work. When you’re in conversation with them, they listen very deeply. I think that’s what makes the work so special. It’s very generous.’
Love Stories is at Brisbane Festival from 8-29 September.
