Callum Le Page turns Le Bug into an unlikely bedtime companion at Melbourne Fringe

Bed bugs are pretty disgusting tiny creatures. Hiding in your bed, coming out while you're sleeping and feasting on you without so much as a thank you note. Except Le Bug. In this physical comedy show, Callum Le Page's bed bug has rather more wholesome plans for your night, although he may still have a few surprises in store.

"Le Bug is a French bed bug who just wants to stay up past his bedtime with the audience, but we must be quiet so that the watchful mother does not stir and tell us off!" Le Page explains. "He's cheeky, charming and very hungry, so there's a chance that maybe, just possibly, they want to have a little nibble of the audience!"

Le Bug has been part of his creative repertoire for some time, gradually evolving from a sketch into something substantial enough to carry a full-length show. "The sketch that Le Bug was born in seemed to get longer and longer and more unhinged every night it was performed," Le Page recalls. "It was a character that never got old for me and I kept finding new stupid things to do with the him, and eventually reached a point where I just wanted to give him a whole hour, for better or worse!"

Kelly Lim Harris is ready to sing about your Yellow Fever at Melbourne Fringe

Being told you’d be great in Miss Saigon might come across as a compliment, but for Kelly Lim Harris, it has happened enough times to inspire a song. In Yellow Fever, the WAAPA-trained performer turns her own experiences of fetishisation, tokenisation and being reduced to her ethnicity into an original cabaret about the realities of being an East Asian performer. Ahead of Yellow Fever's Melbourne Fringe Festival premiere, Lim Harris spoke to us about the stories behind the show, the contradictions of representation and finding her own voice through cabaret.

Lord of the Flies review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Theatre Works

A group of boys crash-land on an island with no adults around, leaving them to establish their own rules, leadership and hierarchy. It doesn't take long for those structures to start falling apart. Steven Mitchell Wright's production of William Golding's Lord of the Flies follows the familiar story, from the struggle between Ralph and Jack to the growing fear of the beast and the group's descent into violence.

There are different expressions of masculinity at play here with Ralph and Jack become increasingly locked in a contest for authority, driven by competition, intimidation and the desire to command. Simon offers a more gentle alternative, while aggressive behaviour demonstrates how quickly strength and dominance become measures of status. Survival of the fittest is not simply practical, but something the boys perform for the group.

An impossible to-do list puts Rebekah Carton to the test in Everything, Now! at Melbourne Fringe

How much can one person possibly get done in an hour? In Everything, Now!, the answer is apparently: everything. Created and performed by award-winning theatre maker Rebekah Carton and directed by George Lazaris, the new work throws Carton into a relentless sixty-minute race against the clock, armed with an impossible list of tasks and increasingly little chance of getting through them all. As interruptions pile up and priorities constantly shift, the carefully constructed system begins to unravel, turning everyday busyness into something far more physical, chaotic and absurd. We managed to pin Carton and Lazaris down to ask how they came up with such an ambitious task list, and whether anyone can really do it all.
 
Tell us about Everything, Now! What exactly is going on?
George Lazaris: Everything!
Rebekah Carton: Right now! 
GL: I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it.
RC: It’s almost like I’m doing every task on my list-
GL: That’s ever been on your list.
RC: Everything that anybody’s ever asked of me and I’ll be like "I’ll do that later. I’ll do it in a little bit.:"
GL: Today’s the day.
RC: Right now. In front of an audience. At Fringe.

Fu@k! I Killed The Director plunges two actors into total chaos at Melbourne Fringe

What do you do when you kill your director on opening night? If you’re the two actors at the centre of FU@K! I KILLED THE DIRECTOR, apparently, you carry on with the production. Blending clowning, mime, dance and a does of chaos, the new work from Alright? Production Company throws two desperate performers into the aftermath of a very unfortunate accident, as they attempt to keep their adaptation of Romeo & Juliet alive while facing the small matter of their dead director. Created by Nina Hopley, Alana Louise and Jason Schwab and performed by Louise and Schwab, the 50-minute farce promises an anarchic, physical and distinctly unpredictable Fringe experience.

The piece takes a pretty spectacular theatrical disaster and turns it into a celebration of play, silliness and letting go. "Two actors, Cherry and John, are about to debut their rendition of Romeo & Juliet. But moments before the curtain goes up, they accidentally kill their director. Covered in blood and reeling from the shock of the freak death, they then do their best to keep the performance alive in front of the audience. It gets absurd, messy and nonsensical, and there are even some real emotional gut punches," Schwab tells me.