Trent Dalton’s Love Stories @ NAFA 2024 - 5/10/24

Trent Dalton’s Love Stories, adapted from his 2021 book, is a heartwarming stage play that brings together a collection of real-life love stories in a way that tugs at the heartstrings.  Weaving together moments of tenderness, regret, and acceptance, each story offers a glimpse into the beauty and complexity of love.

The show is an assemblage of many short vignettes, which Dalton captured on the streets of Brisbane city during COVID, each one with its own message about love: a wife sharing her grief when her partner is killed in a freak accident; a woman watches her elderly father pass away; the couple who cannot conceive a child so look elsewhere to become parents. These touching episodes bring a sense of hope, showing how love transcends all else.

The central narrative that threads the performance together is of a husband and wife, a fictionalised account of Dalton and his wife, who question the foundation of their relationship. They ponder the hypothetical—what if they had never met? This storyline invites the audience to reflect on their own relationships, evoking moments of self-reflection alongside the characters.

The play is punctuated with stirring dance performances that complement the emotional highs and lows of the stories. These sequences, accompanied by beautiful lighting and featuring some iconic Whitney Houston songs, add an extra layer of depth to the production. The camera work, particularly the mobile cameras providing close-ups of the actors, captures the full gambit of emotions—love, loss, joy, and pain—adding a cinematic feel to the live performance.