Trent Dalton's LOVE STORIES To Make Sydney Premiere At Riverside Theatres
The acclaimed stage adaptation will run September 11–20, 2025 in Parramatta.
By: A.A. Cristi Aug. 07, 2025
Following a sold-out debut at Brisbane Festival in 2024, the smash-hit stage adaptation of Trent Dalton’s best-selling book Love Stories will make its Sydney premiere at Riverside Theatres Parramatta from September 11–20, 2025. The production, presented by Brisbane Festival and Queensland Performing Arts Centre, is part of a five-city Australasian tour with stops in Canberra, Darwin, the Gold Coast, and Auckland.
Adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Tim McGarry and directed by Sam Strong, Love Stories captures the beating heart of humanity through real-life tales of passion and heartbreak. Inspired by a moment of generosity, Dalton spent two months in 2021 on a Brisbane street corner with his 1960s Olivetti typewriter, asking passers-by one simple question: “Can you please tell me a love story?” The resulting collection of moving, funny, and deeply human accounts forms the basis for this theatrical celebration of connection.
“It is deeply moving to me to think that these extraordinary stories that I gathered while sitting at a writing desk with a typewriter on the corner of Adelaide and Albert Streets, Brisbane, are now taking the most gifted collection of theatremakers around this beautiful country,” said Dalton. “The real-life people who told these stories came from all corners of Australia and it’s to all corners of this country that we’re trying to reach with this remarkable stage play.”
The cast of ten features Rashidi Edward (Wayside Bride), Jason Klarwein (In Our Blood), Anna McGahan (Closer), Ngoc Phan (Vietgone), Will Tan (Paper Dolls), Valerie Bader (The Heartbreak Choir), Kirk Page (Wudjang: Not the Past), Bryan Probets (Boy Swallows Universe), Jacob Watton (Charlotte’s Web), and Hsin-Ju Ely (The Poison of Polygamy).
Riverside Theatres Director Craig McMaster said, “We’re thrilled to be bringing Love Stories to Riverside. Works like this — nationally significant, emotionally resonant, and deeply human — reflect the bold, unifying storytelling that will define the redeveloped Riverside and place Parramatta at the heart of New South Wales and Australia’s cultural future.”
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