How good is life for first-time author Trent Dalton right now? Hot on the heels of a string of literary awards for his bestselling debut novel Boy Swallows Universe, and this week’s announcement of a television series, comes today’s news that the book is set for the stage.

Sam Strong and Trent Dalton. Photograph © Luke Marsden

Queensland Theatre has announced that it has snared the theatre rights for a co-production with Brisbane Festival. QT’s Artistic Director Sam Strong will direct an adaptation by Tim McGarry, which will have its world premiere at the Brisbane Festival in September 2020 as part of Louise Bezzina’s first program as Artistic Director. The co-production will be one of the pillars of Strong’s final season at QT, and a highlight of QT’s 50th anniversary.

Since Dalton’s captivating, coming-of-age book is set in Brisbane in the 1980s, the Brisbane Festival is the ideal location to launch the production. Inspired by the real-life events of Dalton, a Brisbane-based journalist and author, Boy Swallows Universe tells the story of the imaginative, perceptive 12-year old Eli Bell. His beloved mother is a recovering heroin addict and doing time in jail, his brother...