Culture: A world first for Auckland theatre

When he read Alain de Botton’s Essays in Love some 25 years ago, Oliver Driver decided then and there he wanted to adapt it for the stage — but other directing and acting projects kept him from pursuing the passion project. About four years ago, Driver facebooked de Botton and sent him a message asking if he could turn the bestselling book into theatre. He figured the 50-year-old Swiss-born British philosopher could only say no.

But de Botton gave Driver the green light and, after the rights were obtained and sorted, the play Essays in Love will be performed for the first time anywhere in the world at the Basement Theatre next month.

“I enjoy the way he sees the world and takes normal situations — like falling in love — by putting philosophical explanations around them but I did wonder about how to take a 300-page novel and turn it into a 65-minute production,” says Driver, who’s now producing Shortland Street.

Then gifted young writer Eli Kent turned up at a workshop Driver was running to try to figure out that dilemma and soon found himself part of the production team — which also includes director Sam Snedden and creatives Rachel Marlow, Leon Radojkovic and Ella Mizrahi.

Between them, Driver and Kent have taken the story of Otto and Chloe, who meet on a flight between London and Paris and fall quickly in love and turned it into a funny, smart and moving play relatable to anyone who has ever fallen in — and out — of love.

Leon Wadham plays Otto, the one and only cast member, who, two years after meeting Chloe, is trying to work out what went wrong. He’s playing it as a sort of prequel to the novel, trying to arrange his thoughts in the hope of one day writing something about the Great Love of his Life. Expect insights, too, on the French Revolution, chocolate allergies, passive aggressive squash and a calculation of the exact probability of falling in love at first sight on a British Airways flight.