Any good coming-of-age story seamlessly blends community – in all its glory – with an inevitable reckoning of identity, and Vivian Pham’s breakout novel, The Coconut Children, is a stellar example of just that. The critically-acclaimed bestseller tackles the intricacies of growing up in Australia with conflicting cultural heritage – and it’s now gaining new life onstage with a month-long run at Belvoir St Theatre.
This homegrown book-to-stage adaptation will be taking over the upstairs space of Belvoir St Theatre from Saturday, November 21 to Sunday, December 20, exploring life in Cabramatta back in the ’90s through the lens of 16-year-olds, Sonny and Vince.
The two best friends’ lives couldn’t be more different, with Sonny living in a sheltered yet academically-charged reality of 19-century novels while Vince has been hardened by the uglier realities of the world in which they live. As they navigate their identity in a community filled with love and pain, the harsh gaze of constant surveillance and restrictiveness of tradition become all too familiar.
Blending wry humour and a little crudeness with some of Vivian Pham’s personal experiences, this stage-adapted story will delve deep into the complexities of adolescence, culture and tradition in tandem with the struggles of identifying with the Vietnamese community in a Western society. It’s an ode to the chaos, beauty and pain of adolescence and everything that follows.
You can snap up tickets to the upcoming production from $58 – or from $48 for mid-week matinee student tix – with sessions running from Tuesday to Sunday each week at Belvoir St Theatre. Find out more here.
