MTC to adapt Pung’s ‘Laurinda’

Alice Pung’s YA novel Laurinda (Black Inc.) will be adapted for the stage, as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s (MTC) Next Stage writers’ program and the Playwrights giving circle.

Actor and comedian Diana Nguyen will adapt Laurinda, working with dramaturg and director Petra Kalive.

‘I’ve been a huge fan of Alice Pung’s work ever since reading her first book, Unpolished Gem, in high school,’ said Nguyen. ‘To then contribute my own short story, “Five Ways to Disappoint Your Vietnamese Mother” to her anthology Growing up Asian in Australia was a great honour. To top that, to have Alice’s blessing to adapt her book to a play—wow!’

Laurinda is set in a private high school and narrated by Lucy Lam, a scholarship girl. It won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was shortlisted for the Indie Awards, the Inky Awards, the Australian Book Industry Awards and the Barbara Jefferis Award.

Category: Local news