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.

The Valuer review | Barking Spider Creative | Melbourne Fringe Festival | GaleryGallery INC

How much is that weird little object you’ve been holding onto for years actually worth? The Valuer invites audiences to find out, bringing their knick-knacks to a Suprahuman Valuer for assessment. Created by Penelope Bartlau and Jason Lehane (of Barking Spider Creative), the immersive work plays with our ideas of value, ownership and attachment, asking whether we really want to keep the things we treasure once someone else puts a price on them.

In some ways, this is a sequel to Barking Spider Creative’s The Collector, which I attended last year. Both works explore the stories and worth we attach to everyday objects, but this time the experience is personalised. Rather than engaging with a room of curiosities with another participant, we have our own consultation with the assessor, creating something smaller in scope but no less playful or absorbing.

The visit begins with a brief chat with The Valuer’s familial, who fortunately manages to condense reams of paperwork and terms and conditions into a short interaction. We’re given an explanation of what to expect, without giving anything away. Once the formalities are done, we open the door and take a step inside.

Luke review | Red Stitch

How much can you trust a story when the person telling it has something to hide? Angus Cameron’s Luke explores the uneasy relationship between truth, memory and storytelling, blurring the line between what happened and how we choose to remember it. Developed through Red Stitch’s INK program, this dark drama follows Chris, a 19 year-old whose night of drinking and philosophical debate with two older teacher friends in 2007 sets in motion consequences that will reshape their lives for decades to come.

This becomes more compelling once Chris takes on the role of narrator. As the story progresses, we begin to question whether what took place in the first act actually happened as we saw it, or how much has been embellished in Chris’s retelling. The play creates a complex grey area between fact and interpretation, as Chris' account of the past is shaped by his memories and the narrative he wants to tell.

Beneath the Veil review | National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA)

In Beneath the Veil, NICA’s second-year students present a world where productivity is paramount and happiness and self-fulfilment can only come from work. Through a variety of circus and acrobatics, this “perfect existence” gradually begins to fail, as the things keeping everything in order start to break down and revolt inevitably follows.

The show opens by introducing us to the residents of this town. They are all dressed in identical workmen’s overalls and caps designed by Reuben James. The costumes eventually transform into circus-appropriate outfits, where they become distinct from one another but still retain the factory-like uniformity of the original workwear. An industrial score by Christopher Lewis plays, evoking a factory conveyor belt and the monotonous nature of manual labour.

Creepy Boys are promising absolutely nothing with SLUGS at Melbourne Fringe

What happens when you make a show about absolutely nothing? According to Creepy Boys, you make SLUGS, an electro-punk concert, play, clown performance and basement puppet nightmare that promises a technocolour acid trip featuring puppet Joni Mitchell, a two-person horse and, apparently, every body part they have. Created by real-life lovers S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger, SLUGS has spent the past year travelling around the world, earning a nomination for Best Comedy Show at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe along the way.

The tagline is as straightforward as it gets: "It’s about nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. We promise." And they mean it. "It means it’s about nothing! We felt one nothing didn’t drive the point home, but eight…now we’re cooking. We wouldn't read into it beyond that. No need. No pesky themes to go hunting for, just relax. SLUGS is a space where, finally, you can not think about all the SOMETHINGS of the world.  An hour where you get to leave it at the door. What could go wrong?"