Loaded

Title: Loaded

Authors: Christos Tsiolkas & Dan Giovannoni

Publisher: Adapted by Christos Tsiolkas and Dan Giovannoni, from the novel by Christos Tsiolkas.
Loaded was originally commissioned by Malthouse Theatre.

Almost 30 years ago, Christos Tsiolkas’ debut novel Loaded painted a portrait of a young man who is restlessly searching for himself in opposing worlds. To this day, the story resonates with migrant and queer communities as a reminder that you are not alone.

Ari (Danny Ball, A Beginner’s Guide to Grief) is 19 and unemployed — he doesn’t want to be gay and he doesn’t want to be Greek. He doesn’t want to be anything. Drawn by the alluring pulse of Collingwood’s gay clubs, he finds an escape, and a family in the form of drag queens and one-night stands.

First adapted as the award-winning 1998 film Head On, then reimagined as an audio adaptation in 2020, Loaded finally takes the mainstage with director Stephen Nicolazzo (Looking for Alibrandi) joining writers Dan Giovannoni and Christos Tsiolkas (The Slap, Merciless Gods) to present Ari’s anarchic odyssey that sees him travel the four corners of Melbourne.

Honest, raw, and passionate — a lot can happen in a sweaty night at The Peel.

Photography by Sarah Walker

Judges’ report

Skillfully capturing the intensity and nostalgic tragedy of a never-ending night out – its epiphanies and ennui alike – Loaded is a precise, poetic portrait of a man throbbing with life but running from the world. Adapted by Christos Tsiolkas and Dan Giovannoni from Tsiolkas’ debut novel of the same name, the decision to set the play now rather than in 1995 (when it was first published) ensures Loaded thrums with authenticity and contemporaneity. Through language that is by turns vicious, theatrical and accomplished, Loaded paints a portrait of Naarm/Melbourne that showcases the clash between gentrification and tradition and highlights its protagonist’s desire to escape ‘the thousand things people say you have to be’. Both an interrogation of queer masculinity and an exploration of what it means to be caught between two cultures, the play interrogates internalised homophobia, toxic masculinity, and the power and potency of drugs, dance and music in a way that both honours the original novel and ensures Loaded’s absolute relevancy today.