> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://melbournestagereview.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Melbourne Fringe 2026: Reviews in Brief - URL: https://melbournestagereview.com/melbourne-fringe-2026-reviews-in-brief/ - Published: 2026-10-22T21:53:42.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T21:53:42.000Z - Description: Our Melbourne Fringe Festival Reviews in Brief, first published on Instagram, are gathered here in one collection. Eight shows put formidable skills to dubious uses. Tenderness sneaks in while everyone’s busy making a spectacle of themselves. - Author: Ellen M. Scott - Tags: Reviews At [Melbourne Fringe Festival](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/?ref=melbournestagereview.com), knees can sing and love can resemble a Toyota Prius. A crustacean keeps the jokes coming as the ocean empties around them, and the dead must wait until their boat is good and ready. Across these eight shows, performers put considerable ingenuity into being human, with mixed results for their characters and excellent ones for us. There is tenderness here, and grief, and the strain of making yourself understood. There are also sweets offered under circumstances that may spoil your appetite. Our *Fringe Reviews in Brief*, [first published on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/melbournestagereview/?ref=melbournestagereview.com), collected. --- ## Only Bones ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/20.-Only-Bones-----Daniel-Nodder_Credit-DinosaurToast-1.jpg) Daniel Nodder in **Only Bones*. Photo: DinosaurToast There can't be many performers who can get a laugh from their knees. Daniel Nodder can. At one point in [*Only Bones*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/only-bones-daniel-nodder?ref=melbournestagereview.com), knees sing. It's one of countless small acts of bodily mischief in a superb piece of physical theatre that achieves an improbable amount with next to nothing. The *Only Bones* rules are severe: one light, no text, no set, no props, no narrative and a performance area of one square metre. Nodder, dressed entirely in white, has his body to work with. Fortunately, it seems to contain an unusually large cast. Hands become personalities. Limbs detach themselves from the logic of the torso. A T-shirt becomes an accomplice, or a villain. Nodder folds himself into configurations that make you briefly lose track of which bit of him you're looking at. His face is no more reliable. The technical control is formidable. Isolation, mime, clowning and vocal sound effects are deployed with extraordinary precision, but never as a parade of tricks. Nodder uses these skills to make things appear. And they do. Dinosaurs inhabit the stage. We descend underwater. At another point, two hands become magnets held apart by an invisible resistance. Whole environments materialise from a gesture, a change of light, a noise made with the mouth. The pleasure lies partly in catching your own imagination doing so much of the work. Nodder offers a few exquisitely controlled cues and suddenly there is something in the room that plainly isn't there. Minimalism can become an aesthetic boast. Here, it is a source of abundance. One body. One bulb. One square metre. Nodder fills it. *Created and performed by Daniel Nodder; concept by Thom Monckton · Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Meeting Room* · *30 Sep*–*11 Oct 2026* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd71ZhfEl8n/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&exln=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 1 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## How to Stay Married Without Exploding! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/Melb-Fringe-2026---How-to-Stay-Married-Without-Exploding-_Tom-Noble-Creative-8.jpg) Matthew J. Young in **How to Stay Married Without Exploding*. Photo: Tom Noble Creative For ten years, a man has been standing on a landmine. Rather than attempt the obvious solution, life has accommodated the problem. A home has grown around him. So has a television studio, from which he has become a minor celebrity. Tonight marks his 400th broadcast, and his wife is supposed to be there. She is conspicuously absent. There is something absurdly compelling in the central conceit of [*How to Stay Married Without Exploding!*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/how-to-stay-married-without-exploding?ref=melbournestagereview.com) Its humour emerges less from punchlines than from the elaborate structures built around something nobody seems willing to disturb. At its centre, Matthew J. Young gives a remarkably sustained performance of awkwardness. He greets us with the saccharine bonhomie of an old-fashioned American television host: rehearsed intimacy, fixed smiles and cheerfulness that never quite conceals the desperation underneath. Even before anything unravels, something feels profoundly wrong. And unravel it does. Beneath the marital comedy is a fascination with the stories we construct around our fears. Indeed, what happens when accommodating a danger becomes easier than testing whether it is really there? The production brushes against learned helplessness, denial and the strange security of choosing to remain stuck. There were some opening-night rough edges in the rhythms, but also moments of impressive restraint. Its silences are allowed to hold their charge rather than being hurried towards the next laugh. I wondered whether its central metaphor might travel one step further. A man building an entire life around an untested danger is compelling; I wanted, just occasionally, to feel less certain that the absurdity belonged only to him. But there is plenty to enjoy in its peculiar world, which finds surprising pathos beneath the discomfort. *Written and performed by Matthew J. Young; directed and co-written by Marshall Brown · Theatre Works – Explosives Factory* · *29 Sep*–*3 Oct 2026* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd5v%5FxSErOv/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 30 September 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## Am I Who? x 2 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/-c--Sahra.jpg) Sahra Davoudi. Photo: Darren Gill. At eleven, Sahra Davoudi decides to be Rose from Titanic. Arms out, swept up in the romance of it all, she falls backwards and breaks her arm. There are easier ways to discover the hazards of being somebody else. That memory floats through [*Am I Who? x 2*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/am-i-who-x-2?ref=melbournestagereview.com), Davoudi’s funny, tender autobiographical solo about migration, belonging and the curious business of learning how to be yourself somewhere new. Davoudi grew up in Tehran and moved to Melbourne at 25\. Here, she discovers that Australians have rules too. We say sorry constantly. We ask “How are you?” without necessarily wanting to know. “Not too bad” can apparently constitute good news. Even a resting face may require some adjustment. Davoudi is keenly alert to these tiny absurdities. But the jokes carry a quiet ache. Beneath them sits the exhausting work of becoming legible: the forms and boxes, the compromises of language, the gradual editing of opinions, stories, expressions and even her own name. Margaret Mills directs with a light hand, allowing Davoudi’s warmth and dry wit to do the work. A few chairs, clothes, notebooks and shifts of music are enough; the pleasure is in watching Davoudi turn observation into story. There is no grand reckoning here. Davoudi leaves us with all those small negotiations between who we are, who we are allowed to be, and who it is simply easier to become. It is tender, sharply observed and quietly wonderful. *Written and performed by Sahra Davoudi; directed by Margaret Mills · Festival Hub: Meat Market* · *6*–*10 Oct 2026* *Winner: Change Maker Award, Melbourne Fringe 2026 (supported by Theatre Network Australia).* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeLNufTEhYk/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&rpxt=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 7 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## Krilling Me Softly ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/KrillingMeSoftly_SocialMediaRes_-32--1.jpg) Anna Thomson in **Krilling Me Softly*. Photo: Andy Signor Welcome aboard the Cheap Krills No Frills Underwater Discount Sea Cruise, where the entertainment is plentiful, the puns are relentless and the guest performers are, regrettably, nowhere to be found. Anna Thomson plays Krill M S Pinafore, our endearingly earnest crustacean host, determined to give us a good time despite mounting evidence that things aren't going entirely to plan. There are more seafood jokes than a seagull could poke a chip at, and Thomson delivers them with infectious enthusiasm and a straight face. The costumes deserve an ovation of their own: some of the most astonishing we’ve encountered. It’s all gloriously silly, but there’s something disarmingly vulnerable about this little crustacean trying so hard to give everyone a good time. As the promised entertainers fail to appear, Pinafore is left to keep the show afloat alone. The jokes continue, but there's a growing sense of absence. Of a world that used to be rather more populated, rather more predictable, rather more alive. Environmental loss is part of the picture, but the melancholy seems to reach further. There's a quiet grief here for things disappearing, and perhaps for the exhausting business of pretending everything is fine while they do. A wonderfully daft voyage that leaves a surprisingly wistful wake. [*Krilling Me Softly*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/krilling-me-softly?ref=melbournestagereview.com) *was created and performed by Anna Thomson; directed by Christine Lesiak · Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Archive Room · 7*–*11 Oct 2026* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeViIaCkjL8/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&psln=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 11 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## Freidah Will See You Now ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/Show-Photo-001_MICF-26_credit_Ece-Mustafoff.jpg) Caitlin Duff in **Freidah Will See You Now*. Photo: Ece Mustafoff There's a point in the show where, for two and a half minutes, Freidah does almost nothing. A timer counts down. They wait. We wait. Freidah looks at us. It is excruciating. It is hilarious. That is the peculiar electricity of [*Freidah Will See You Now*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/freidah-will-see-you-now?ref=melbournestagereview.com), Caitlin Duff’s strange clown show about what happens when you die and discover the boat across the Styx is running late. Duff has an exquisite sense of how long a moment can be stretched before it snaps. A latecomer is swallowed whole by the performance. A noise from the street becomes part of Freidah’s world. A man in blue finds himself paying both the “late tax” and the “man tax”. At some point, for reasons that seem perfectly sensible at the time, an entire room begins whispering “cheese”. Anything can happen. More dangerously, anything we do can become part of it. The hour feels live in every possible sense. Duff reads the room with remarkable attentiveness, letting silence gather and then puncturing it with a look, a movement, a tiny act of provocation. The interruptions become opportunities. There is tremendous skill beneath the apparent chaos, and a delicious sense that Freidah could get away with anything. Freidah is gruesome, imperious, ridiculous and utterly magnetic. The boat can take its time. *Created and performed by Caitlin Duff · Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Meeting Room ·* 7–18 Oct 2026 *Winner: Hollywood Fringe Touring Award, Melbourne Fringe 2026.* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeNZQ4bkk0P/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&mdxt=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 8 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## Before We Begin ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/BeforeWeBeginMelbFringe8.jpg) Hamish Annan and an audience member in **Before We Begin*. Photo: John Rata Photography Hamish Annan asks. Someone says yes. Someone says no. Someone negotiates. And slowly, a roomful of strangers gets very good at telling one another where the boundary is. [*Before We Begin*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/before-we-begin?ref=melbournestagereview.com) begins in play and keeps pushing: an invitation, a decision, another invitation, slightly more outrageous than the last. It is sweet, sexy, silly and very funny. Annan watches closely, waits for the answer, then sees just how much further we might be willing to go. Consent isn't simply the subject here. It is the engine. The room shifts around each yes and no: laughter, awkwardness, curiosity, the delicious little charge of watching somebody decide whether they're actually going to follow the invitation through. And then, almost without warning, all that mucking about melds into something much more tender. “Because people need intimacy,” Annan says. That is the heartbeat of *Before We Begin*. Asking clearly, listening properly, being able to say no — not as barriers to intimacy, but as ways of getting closer. It is a deceptively clever little show: generous, mischievous and rather lovely. *Created and performed by Hamish Annan · Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Quilt Room · 7*–*11 Oct 2026* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DeOSEWmkn%5F8/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&xtok=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 8 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## Giuseppe's Love Quest ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/Giuseppe-s-Love-Quest---Nick-Mic-Pics-4.jpg) Jeromaia Detto in **Giuseppe's Love Quest*. Photo: Nick Mic Pics Love is warm, apparently. Like a cheese toastie? asks Giuseppe. It makes you feel secure. Like McAfee antivirus? Comfortable, too. Like a Toyota Prius? Nobody can quite explain why any of this is wrong. Giuseppe has never been in love, which strikes him as a dreadful oversight. He would like to remedy the situation, preferably before he gets around to marriage, children and whatever else people do once they've found someone willing to put up with them. For guidance, he turns to the audience. A mistake, as it happens. We know rather less about love than we thought. Jeromaia Detto's [*Giuseppe's Love Quest*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/jeromaia-detto-giuseppes-love-quest?ref=melbournestagereview.com) is romantic reconnaissance conducted by a man whose understanding of human affection is approximately that of an enthusiastic extraterrestrial. Roses are distributed. Advice is solicited. Hugs are investigated. Kissing presents certain technical difficulties. Detto, sporting an Italian accent of heroic proportions, is a marvellously foolish presence. He dances, contorts, flirts and submits his audience to various mild indignities, all with the bright-eyed conviction of a man certain that happiness is just one more question away. The curious thing is that Giuseppe's questions aren't stupid. How do you explain an experience to someone who has never had it? We reach for metaphors, only to discover that our best descriptions of love could equally advertise household appliances. Giuseppe may know nothing about love. But after an hour with those who claim to understand it, one wonders whether he's simply the only person honest enough to admit it. As love quests go, it's a spectacular failure. As an evening's entertainment, it's a thoroughly ridiculous delight. *Created and performed by Jeromaia Detto · Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Old Council Chambers · 14*–*18 Oct 2026* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DejerQJErhy/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&obrf=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 16 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- ## SLUGS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/1d/4e1d8918-61fe-47b0-a53e-03b9c2038472/content/images/2026/10/NEW-Production-Photo-3---Photographer---Sayna-Ghaderi.jpg.jpg) Sam Kruger and S.E. Grummett in **SLUGS*. Photo: Sayna Ghaderi Somewhere in the middle of [*SLUGS*](https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/slugs?ref=melbournestagereview.com), I found myself remembering You Can't Do That on Television, the sublimely revolting Canadian children's sketch show. There were ridiculous costumes, homemade special effects, abrupt changes of direction and a zeal for doing things that oughtn't be done. Except this time everyone was grown up, nobody was wearing pants, and the world is going to hell. Canadian duo Creepy Boys (S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger) begin by slithering across the stage inside sleeping bags, their faces emerging through suggestively positioned openings. Things deteriorate rapidly. There are puppets, pounding electronic beats, a feathered nappy, an alien abduction and a thrilling quantity of exposed genitalia. They offer us sweets while naked from the waist down. It's difficult to know where to look, which is rather the point. What makes *SLUGS* so exhilarating isn't simply its appetite for outrage, but how precisely Grummett and Kruger orchestrate it. A joke finds momentum, veers towards catastrophe, then abruptly pivots into embarrassment or an entirely different sketch. They're masters of the comic handbrake turn, repeatedly catching us laughing at something we hadn't quite agreed was funny. They insist they're making a show about nothing. Nothing important, anyway. Nothing about violence, identity, politics. But these things keep finding their way in. A gun becomes harmless when somebody sticks googly eyes on it, surely? We end in a kind of delirium, as jokes, provocations and genuine horrors converge. Oddly, I think that's what reminded me of my favourite childhood television. The freedom to be disgusting, ridiculous and completely unserious, without having to account for any of it. Only now we're adults, and apparently everything means something. *Created and performed by Creepy Boys (S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger) · Festival Hub: Meat Market · 1*–*17 Oct 2026* *Winner: Spirit of the Fringe, Melbourne Fringe 2026.* [First published](https://www.instagram.com/p/DejjstfkgQC/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fweb%5Fcopy%5Flink&cplk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==&srtk=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) on 16 October 2026\. Lightly revised for this collection. --- Disclosure: Melbourne Stage Review was granted a media pass for the purpose of reviewing performances at Melbourne Fringe Festival 2026\. We retain full editorial independence.