Black Swan State Theatre Company presents The Shepherd’s Hut adapted by Tim McGarry from Tim Winton’s novel

Taking four years to adapt Tim Winton’s novel The Shepherd’s Hut for the stage might sound like a luxury of time, but for playwright Tim McGarry it was a creative necessity.

The evocative detail in which Winton had written the narrative and encapsulated the remote rural WA landscape in his storytelling had made McGarry reluctant even to touch the work as a stage adaptation when the idea was initially presented to him by the author’s agent.

Not one to shy away from a challenge — McGarry has written stage adaptations of Colleen McCullough’s Tim, and Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe and Love Stories — he declined after the first reading, citing The Shepherd’s Hut as more filmic.

When asked six months later to reconsider, he read it again and agreed it could be done but would need to be reimagined.

“I wrote to Tim, and I said, ‘I would love to adapt this for the stage, but to adapt it for the stage, I would like to really play with the novel’s narrative, setting it in the present day, rather than as a memory piece’,” says McGarry, who was commissioned to adapt The Shepherd’s Hut by Black Swan State Theatre Company.

“There were a few other things I suggested. He graciously agreed, and the rest is history.

“My fundamental belief when adapting a novel, if the author is available, is they should be given no surprises. They should know exactly how we’re interpreting the work and how we’re going to present it. It is their story for us to develop, but I want it to be developed with their blessing . . . Tim’s feedback is always very positive and very clear and succinct. He’s terrific to work with.”

The process also involved collaborating with the team at Black Swan State Theatre Company, including artistic director Kate Champion, director Matt Edgerton, and Chris Isaacs, who acted as dramaturge on the work that follows the story of teenager Jaxie Clackton, a survivor of a violent upbringing.

After witnessing a freak accident at home, and fearful of being blamed for it, Jaxie flees into the salt lakes of WA, where he meets disgraced Irish priest Fintan MacGillis, hiding out in an old shepherd’s hut and wrestling with his own moral dilemmas.

While grappling with the epic nature of the piece during one of the early creative developments, McGarry was asked if he would consider including two narrators to describe the landscape, along with capturing it in elements of lighting, sound and design.

The idea proved to be a successful one, developed beyond narrators into more of a Greek chorus, who not only describe the landscape Jaxie sees, but vocalise the psychological aspect of what the teenager is thinking and feeling.

“As a teenager, Jaxie’s vocabulary is fairly limited in terms of his own education, but also limited by the Irish priest who is very lyrical and verbose,” Sydney-based McGarry explains.

“As their very fragile friendship develops, they both begin to come to terms with their own inner demons, as their secrets kind of come to life.

“Thematically, the story tackles big issues like redemption, faith, masculinity and isolation. For me, it really feels like it’s a story about survival, both psychological but also physical survival for the two characters.”

When it came to casting the world premiere production, McGarry says Black Swan found their Jaxie in Ryan Hodson, while theatre stalwart George Shevtsov was born to play Fintan MacGillis.

McGarry began his career as an actor himself, moving to Perth in 1985 to study at the WA Academy of Performing Arts and making his professional debut in WA Theatre Company’s The Sentimental Bloke the following year.

He studied directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and is co-founder of Sydney’s Monkey Baa Theatre Company, where he was creative director and producer from 2005-2017.

McGarry returned to Perth for the first two weeks of The Shepherd’s Hut’s rehearsal period as each scene was developed and blocked, ensuring the dialogue and movement worked, before happily leaving the production to Edgerton, the actors, and the rest of the creative team.

“As a writer, you feel a sense of melancholia as it gets to this stage, because I’ve lived with the story for four years, and all of a sudden the baby’s nearly born,” McGarry shares.

“It is such a beautiful, lyrical work. Every single day I sat with Tim’s words, I felt so incredibly honoured being given this opportunity. He’s an extraordinary writer. He’s so gifted, and it’s been one of the joys of my life working on this piece.”

The Shepherd’s Hut is at Heath Ledger Theatre, May 9 to 31, tickets at blackswantheatre.com.au.