When acclaimed French author Édouard Louis steps onto the stage, it feels like entering an arena to fight.
Louis stars in the stage adaptation of his third novel, Qui a tué mon père (Who killed my father) as part of the Adelaide Festival, and was also a guest at Adelaide Writers Week which wrapped up on Friday.
His first book of autobiographical fiction, The End of Eddy, described his upbringing in Hallencourt in northern France, where he suffered abuse from his father, bullying, homophobia, and a home life so poor that at times there was not enough to eat.
Yet his acting talents were a ticket out of town and eventually led to a personal transformation - Eddy Bellegueule lost his working class accent and manners, got his teeth fixed, and changed his name to Édouard Louis.
The End of Eddy created a sensation when it was published France in 2014, becoming a bestseller translated into dozens of languages.
Now in his early 30s, Louis has since published another four titles including his latest book Change, released in Australia in February.
So why the all the fighting? Louis explains that his art and writing begin with the mechanisms of violence, the class, race, gender and familial violence, that he believes every society is built on.
For Louis, writers' festivals and theatre are a way of speaking to his political adversaries - the well-educated audiences that are blind to poverty and social exclusion.
"There is a certain sense for me of trying to force the people in the theatre to look at the realities they don't necessarily see," he told AAP.
For all this, the author is genuinely enthusiastic about Adelaide and finds the South Australian capital beautiful and charming.
Who killed my father, directed by Thomas Ostermeier, is on at the Dunstan Playhouse until Sunday.
It tells the story of how Louis' father, a street sweeper and factory worker, was left unable to work and reliant on an apparatus to breathe at the age of 55.
Many actors might find this highly personal material challenging, but Louis said he does not feel emotionally involved: his sense of self is subsumed by the story, and being onstage becomes primarily a political act.
"When I start performing, every time I have the impression of entering an arena of fighting," he said.
A performance Friday was met with sustained applause: Louis may be the first French public intellectual who can dance, and do a mean Whitney Houston impersonation.
Yet even if Louis wins the audience's hearts, spurring political action through theatre is another matter.
In France, art might move people to sympathise with the working class, but they still vote for Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front party, the author said.
This "social schizophrenia" is one of the things Louis wants to destroy, although he admits to feeling powerless at times.
Standing in his way is a pervasive Western dialogue of social mobility, freedom and aspiration - the idea that anything is possible through desire and hard work.
"It's so friendly and so beautiful to say to people, you are free, everybody's free ... how can you fight against this violence that comes with a smiling face?" he said.
Yet he sees moments of progress. As Louis was preparing for the Australian premiere of Who killed my father, France voted to enshrine abortion rights in the nation's constitution.
"It was a moving and incredible moment," he said, but cautioned it came from a government that is elsewhere cutting welfare and thus perpetuating violence against women.
Louis' books expose the most intimate details of his life and that of his family (the specifics have reportedly been disputed by some close to him) and also show him participating in the cruelty he sees all around.
But earning the trust of his many readers is beside the point - living within a system of violence, he too reflects and reproduces that violence.
"They can love or dislike the protagonist, it doesn't really matter to me," the author said.
His latest publication Change sees him returning once again to the formative stories of his upbringing, prompting commentary that the title is ironic, as his material has become repetitive.
Here too, Louis sees a political attack: mainstream critics would never regard the milieu of the bourgeoisie or the aristocracy in this way.
"They wouldn't say that about Proust ... I'm quite happy when people say things like this, it means that they're disturbed, so I kind of cherish it."
Who killed my father is on at the Dunstan Playhouse until Sunday, and the author will appear in conversation at the Sydney Opera House on March 13.
AAP travelled with the assistance of the Adelaide Festival.
