Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new theatre adaptation at Belvoir St Theatre

Playwright and comedian Vidya Rajan didn't grow up in Australia – so when she was asked to pitch her ideas for a stage adaptation of Looking for Alibrandi, she approached the task with the appropriate amount of irreverence. "I didn't grow up with Alibrandi … I don't have the same relationship that some people have," Rajan says. "In the book and the film, Josie's is a very individualist coming-of-age story where, at the end of it, she's like, 'I'm free and I can be whatever I want to be,'" Rajan explains. "I really love the place that Alibrandi has claimed in other people feeling that they can write their story," she says. "I've still got Kick's copy somewhere … When I read the book, I really fell in love with it," she says.