Grace Chapple, an emerging Australian playwright now based in London, travelled alone to Florence, Italy, in 2022. While standing in the Uffizi Gallery she listened to the audiobook of E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View.

The experience hit her hard. She says the novel’s mix of romance and self‑discovery made her want to ‘blow up’ her own life, prompting a break‑up with her long‑term boyfriend and a fresh artistic direction.

That fresh direction became an adaptation of the novel for Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre. The production runs from 3 October to 1 November, then moves to the Melbourne Theatre Company for a run from 14 November to 19 December.

Chapple’s first play, Never Closer, debuted in Belvoir’s independent 25A program in 2022 and, two years later, was staged on the theatre’s main stage, establishing her reputation in Australian theatre.

She is now writing a second original play, The Landlord, which looks at intergenerational housing inequality. The script draws on her economics degree and research she carried out at Cambridge University.

By linking a classic early‑20th‑century novel with contemporary social concerns, Chapple shows how literature can inspire personal change and give voice to pressing issues like the housing crisis.