Fairy Smut review | Rama Nicholas | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Underground Upstairs

In Fairy Smut, Rama Nicholas takes audiences into the world of romantasy - a literary subgenre of romance and fantasy - where witches, dragons, kings and other fantastical characters populate a tale filled with sexual escapades and comic absurdity. Guided by Thistle, a fairy with a decidedly filthy outlook, Nicholas brings the genre's adventures to life in a solo performance.

The story itself is intricate and detailed, with Nicholas taking on 15 characters, including the aforementioned witches, dragons, and kings. Each is given a distinct personality, brought to life through carefully judged changes in voice, facial expression and body language. The level of detail she brings to these transformations is impressive, demonstrating both her versatility as a performer and her ability to create an entire cast of characters on her own.

A few forgotten lines draw us out of the world of the show, although Nicholas attributes these lapses to her perimenopausal symptoms. Similarly, while not explicitly stated, her decision to remove her costume (while still wearing her regular clothes, this is a smutty show but not that smutty!), and being seated for much of the performance may also be related to her condition. But all of this eventually takes its toll on the show, which, despite remaining entertaining, is unable to recover and falls short of what could have been a much stronger production.

Campervan: An Ozploitation Horror Musical review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

In 1998, five friends went out to the Gully to make a horror movie. In a case of art imitating life, only four returned, under questionable circumstances. Ten years later, those four friends reunite on the anniversary of their friend’s death and, perhaps not so wisely, decide to head back to the Gully to finish what they started.

Written by Geraldine Quinn, Campervan: An Ozploitation Horror Musical embraces the low-fi spirit of its title, with a four-piece band (Sonja Horbelt, Cameron Thomas, Ash Smith and Quinn) taking up much of the performance space, including their drums, keyboards and guitars. There is no traditional set or collection of large props for the cast to work with. Instead, selected still and moving images are projected onto a screen behind them, giving the production a stripped-back quality.

The music is one of the production’s strengths. Quinn’s opening number is full of verve and sass, immediately establishing the show’s comic sensibility and setting the scene for what follows. As the musical progresses, however, the songs begin to feel increasingly familiar, with too many numbers settling into a slower pace and too few injecting the production with the energy needed to keep things moving.

The Year There Were No Monsters review | Weeping Spoon Productions | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

What happens when there are no monsters left to fight? The Year There Were No Monsters takes that question in a wonderfully strange direction, bringing together a collection of colourful characters to share their experiences. There’s music, clowning, mime and plenty of silliness, but beneath the absurdity is an attempt to explore what it means to be a hero when there’s no obvious villain to defeat.

It’s the reopening of a local open mic night after the building was destroyed by a monster, and a number of residents have come along to tell their stories. Writer and performer Shane Adamczak does an excellent job of giving each character a distinct voice and personality, using impressive vocal work and physicality to convincingly transform from a young schoolboy to an older man to a mime artist.

Each account refers to the various monster attacks that have occurred over the years, but the characters have very different responses to what they have witnessed. Young Dayson speaks with an infectious enthusiasm, even making up a song about the A-Z of monsters, seemingly unable to comprehend the full horror of what has happened. In contrast, the older man is more scarred and traumatised by what he has endured, carrying the weight of what he has seen.

Kissing Booth review | Booth the Clown | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

Kissing Booth, performed by Booth the Clown, is an interactive comedy show built around a simple premise: Booth is here to make us laugh and shower us with kisses. Unfortunately, the King of Kisses is not impressed. He constantly ridicules Booth for failing to be funny, creating the production’s central conflict as Booth tries to prove that they are worthy of the crowds love and the crown.

There is good energy in the performance, and Booth’s clownish presence gives the show a playful quality. A particularly lovely addition is Sampson the Sheep, whose instability on their feet brings an appealing warmth to the proceedings. The audience interactions provide a more engaging dynamic, with Booth regularly bringing spectators into the action rather than simply performing at them.

However, its featured audience game is essentially repeated and extended instead of being developed. Once it has been played through the first time, it quickly loses some of its charm, making the middle section stretch out without any escalation. The forty-minute running time begins to feel less like a brisk choice than an indication that there may not be enough here to sustain the setup.

Freidah Will See You Now review | Caitlin Duff | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

Oh, Freidah. Heard before she’s seen. Rustling somewhere in the darkness. Feet skittering. Running. A strange gurgle cuts through the silence. A glimpse. Where is she? A gasp. Then…SPLASH. Another. And another. Splish. Splash. Slosh. A leg emerges. Then the rest of her. Oh, Freidah. We’ve been expecting you.

Or perhaps they’ve been expecting us. In Freidah Will See You Now, we are recently deceased, greeted by psychopomp Freidah as she prepares to take us to the underworld, where our afterlife journey will begin. We just have to wait for the boat to arrive. It will be here, we are assured. In the meantime, we wait.

Caitlin Duff is marvellous as Freidah. An oversized black coat with a large pink tutu as a frilled collar, and a bellhop cap already makes for a striking look, but add the bald cap, heightened eye makeup, long nails and unique teeth, and they become impossible to take your eyes off.