Video Designer, Craig Wilkinson, has impressively recreated photographic images that fit the walls and floor perfectly, giving a 3D effect, with diverse rainbow and multi-coloured backdrops for the fantasy images such as the moon pool. The set was simple, consisting of a centre revolve with many smaller props, and minimal pieces of furniture and car seats, to keep the action flowing.

Renée Mulder created a wide-open space, extended to the theatre back walls, which are used to project images and video of places, including the Brisbane Town Hall clock-tower, various house exteriors, Boggo Road Gaol, The Courier Mail offices and a realistic train journey. Set in the Brisbane suburbs of the 1980s, the production design was exquisite, cleverly positioning the many scenes in known venues and places. McGarry managed to interweave the book’s many episodes into a tight linear structure linked by well-written dialogue, and assisted by a fluid production design and a fast-moving production. His was as faithful a rendition of this book as would seem possible, especially given the novel’s sprawling nature and length (471 pages), its complex themes and both its dark and seamy side as well as moments of fantasy and dream-like unreality. McGarry left no theme unexplored and no nuance of character unconsidered.

Queenslander Trent Dalton’s acclaimed first novel, Boy Swallows Universe, based on his early life, has been brought to the stage in a thoughtful, clearly meticulous adaptation by Tim McGarry.

Hoa xuande