Trent Dalton's Love Stories
Get ready to fall in love all over again.
This restless city has a story to tell.
“Craig Wilkinson’s live video feeds from an on-stage camera and towering projections do more than magnify the characters: they magnify the stakes. One moment we’re swept up in a panoramic Brisbane sky; the next we’re drawn into the intimacy of a trembling lip or a sidelong glance.” – THE GUARDIAN
Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, bestselling author – and one of Australia’s finest journalists – Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 gathering stories on his sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter, on a prominent street corner in Brisbane’s CBD.
Speaking to Australians from all walks of life, he asked them one simple thing: ‘Can you please tell me a love story?’
What followed was Dalton’s unashamedly joyous collection ofLove Stories, and the creative team behind the smash-hit page-to-stage adaptation of Boy Swallows Universe (Sam Strong and Tim McGarry) reuniting to bring to life Dalton’s latest warm, wise, poignant, funny and moving story about love, in all its guises.
Live camera generative effects made with 
PRODUCER
Brisbane Festival / QPAC
Seasons
Playhouse QPAC, Brisbane Australia (2024)
Touring Australia 2025
Merrigong Theatre Company, Wollongong
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival
Creative Team
ADAPTOR – Tim McGarry with additional writing and story by Trent Dalton and Fiona Franzmann
DIRECTOR / DRAMATURG – Sam Strong
CHOREOGRAPHER & MOVEMENT DIRECTOR – Nerida Matthaei
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR – Ngoc Phan
SET & COSTUME DESIGN – Renee Mulder
LIGHTING DESIGN – Ben Hughes
VIDEO DESIGN AND CINEMATOGRAPHY – Craig Wilkinson
COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN – Stephen Francis
ASSOCIATE VIDEO DESIGNER – Lani Dwyer
VIDEO TECHNICIAN – Caitlyn Kidney
PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY – Craig Wilkinson
REVIEWS
“Lighting designer Ben Hughes and video designer Craig Wilkinson craft a visual landscape that is both innovative and immersive, heightening the emotional impact of every scene.”
ARTSHUB
“Craig Wilkinson’s video design and Tnee Dyer’s camera work are tightly choreographed and often strikingly beautiful.”
THE CONVERSATION
“The innovative use of video cameras to shoot live footage that dominated the stage’s backdrop was so impressive.”
STAGE WHISPERS
“The technical aspects of the show are just as impressive, and unlike anything I had seen before. The use of camera work, with close-up shots of the actors projected onto the stage backdrop, made it feel like this beautiful mix of theatre and cinema — artsy but without pretension.”
THE COURIER-MAIL
“Incorporating live footage into stage productions is a risky enterprise, often with limited reward. Here, Craig Wilkinson’s video design is fluid and beautifully crisp. A large single screen takes up the width of the stage, and is set at a height where the audience can comfortably switch between watching the actors in front of them, or the digital depictions in crystal-clear resolution.”
THE AUSTRALIAN
VIDEO
Production Trailer 1:13
video by optikal bloc
PRODUCTION IMAGES
