When people tell the stories of their lives, they rarely dwell on the ordinary days in between.

What they remember most vividly are the turning points: the moments of beginnings and endings that reshape their world.

For playwright and director Tim McGarry, that realisation struck him powerfully as he adapted Trent Dalton’s Love Stories for the stage.

“The most dramatic parts of our lives are the starts and the ends,” McGarry says. “The beginning of a relationship, the end of one, the birth of a child, the death of someone close.

“That’s what people chose to share with Trent, and those are the images that stay with us. They’re the strongest in our memory.”

It’s a fitting lens through which to view Love Stories, Dalton’s 2021 book of real-life tales gathered while he sat on a Brisbane street corner with a typewriter, inviting passers-by to tell him what love meant to them.

Ordinary Australian students, soldiers, parents, and dreamers shared extraordinary moments of connection and heartbreak.

For McGarry and his long-time collaborator, director Sam Strong, those stories immediately felt destined for the theatre. The pair had already spent years working on the stage adaptation of Dalton’s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe, which premiered at Brisbane Festival in 2021. When Love Stories was published soon after, McGarry says it was almost serendipity.

“Sam and I read it, and we both rang each other. The stories were so beautifully realised, so dramatic, so perfect for the stage,” he recalls. “We contacted Trent and his wife Fiona, and they jumped at the idea.”

Unlike a novel, Love Stories didn’t come with a clear arc. It was a collection of 70 different voices, each self-contained, each tugging in a different direction.

For theatre, that posed a problem.

“One of the challenges was: how do you create a through line? Plays need an arc,” McGarry says.

We wanted to capture the spirit of Trent’s work by layering in music and movement as well as dialogue.

The breakthrough came when Dalton suggested using his own marriage as a spine for the work.

“Trent and Fiona wrote reams of material around relationships, and that became the framework,” adds McGarry.

“Every story we chose had to either provoke their relationship or answer questions about it.”

From there, McGarry and Strong selected around 40 stories for the stage, varying in length and form. Some play out in full; others are expressed through fragments, dance, or multimedia.

“We wanted to capture the spirit of Trent’s work by layering in music and movement as well as dialogue,” McGarry says.

“That way, the feelings from the street corner could live in the theatre.”

Authenticity was central to the process. To ensure they honoured the original storytellers, McGarry and his team shared early drafts with those who had spoken to Dalton.

“We asked: Does this represent how you felt? Their feedback made the work stronger and more genuine,” he adds. “It also gave them a sense of ownership; these aren’t just characters; they’re their lives on stage.”

Of all the stories, one stayed with McGarry more than most.

Ashley, a young Tasmanian woman, had spent years auditioning for drama schools around Australia before finally being accepted into one in Brisbane.

Her boyfriend, a soldier stationed in Darwin, drove thousands of kilometres to help her move. But as they settled her into her new life, he told her their relationship couldn’t continue.

He wanted to stay in Hobart; she needed to chase her dream.

“Her response was, ‘There’s no acting work in Hobart,’ and he said, ‘I know,’” McGarry recounts. “She asked him, ‘Was this real?’ and he said, ‘Yes, it was. But sometimes dreams are stronger than love.’”

It shows us that the simplest moments in life can be the most profound.

For McGarry, who once left Sydney to study theatre in Perth, the story resonated deeply.

“It broke my heart. But it was such a gift of love, really, that he set her free to follow her path,” he says. “That’s why I was steadfast about including it.”

It is, he says, a perfect example of the universality of Dalton’s collection.

“These aren’t just stories of romance, they’re about ambition, loss, sacrifice, the choices we make at crossroads,” he adds. “That’s why they hit audiences so hard.”

For McGarry, Love Stories reflects contemporary Australian culture in its purest sense.

“Every single one is an authentic Australian story,” he says. “They’re not celebrities or politicians.

“They’re ordinary people sharing extraordinary moments.”

And while books and films can capture those moments too, McGarry believes theatre holds a unique power.

“With a book, you can put it down, return to it later,” he says. “But theatre is immediate; it’s an intense one-to-three-hour experience.

“The audience breathes together. There’s laughter, there are tears, and sometimes you can hear people openly crying.

“That shared moment is incredibly powerful.”

The result, he hopes, is more than just an evening of entertainment.

“I want audiences to leave uplifted, euphoric, maybe appreciating their loved ones just a little bit more than before,” he adds. “Because love is universal, but it’s also deeply personal.

“These stories remind us of the many kinds of love that make up our lives. It shows us that the simplest moments in life can be the most profound.”

Trent Dalton will be in conversation with Holly Wainwright at the Enmore Theatre on October 7.

Main image of Trent Dalton by David Jackmanson/Wikimedia.