Knows, No's, Nose review | Melbourne Fringe | The Motley Bauhaus

Knows, No’s, Nose follows two clowns navigating the ups and downs of share-house living. Clown A is a long-time professional, utterly devoted to being the best clown possible. Clown B is the polar opposite of Clown A. They are a newcomer, full of questions, desires, and doubts about what it means to be a clown. How can this pair co-exist when they sit at the furthest ends of the clowning spectrum?

This 60-minute comedy, written and performed by Alice Ridgway, explores an existential crisis through the lens of clowning. Despite the absurdity, the show finds emotional depth in its human undercurrents. It’s a clever balance of physical humour and thoughtful reflection, keeping the audience laughing while also considering bigger questions.

Unbearable Hotness review | Melbourne Fringe | The Motley Bauhaus

There’s something about Marissa in Gabriel Davis’ Unbearable Hotness. At a university house party, a group of friends gather in a bedroom and share stories, desires, and frustrations centred on the elusive Marissa - the “White Whale” everyone, men and women alike, seem obsessed with.
 
For a play that runs only 40 minutes, Unbearable Hotness crams in a lot of story. Even as a comedy, the result is fleeting flashes of authenticity over sustained depth. The supposed history between Jill, Brandon, and Marissa, which drives the loose main plot, never feels fully realised. With so many characters squeezed into such a short timeframe, some are left sitting in the background or reduced to delivering a handful of one-liners. Cutting two characters wouldn’t hurt the narrative at all in this instance.

Nun Slut: Caught Between the Sacred and the Absurd at Melbourne Fringe

Nun and slut, sacred and silly. Claire Robin’s breakout show Nun Slut is an absurd mashup of religion, the body, and politics. Blending physical comedy, sketch, and cabaret, Robin teases out the contradictions of spirituality, sexuality, and everything in between. Hot off acclaimed festival runs, including the recent Sydney Fringe, she’s bringing her holy chaos to Melbourne Fringe. We caught up with her to learn more about this zany show, such as the inspiration behind the nun to slut continuum.

"The nun to slut spectrum is navigated by mixing a sense of the sacred with the profane. I enjoy switching between these two extremes - often through music, facial expressions, and play with the audience," she tells me. "The nun character herself has an internal battle with these two sides of herself, which manifests in surprising ways. The piece grew out of my own journey of unpacking my religious upbringing and deconstructing the way the church speaks about sexuality and the body. I think sexuality and spirituality are inherently linked. There is a lot of irony in the emphasis placed on the control of the body and desire, when spirituality is such an embodied experience. Nun Slut really highlights this irony in an absurd way.

First Trimester: Theatre, Intimacy, and the Search for a Sperm Donor at Melbourne Fringe

First Trimester is not your average theatre show. It is part performance, part experiment, part tender interrogation of what it means to build a family as a transgender person. London-based artist Krishna Istha takes the stage with an unusual mission: to seek out the “perfect” sperm donor. We chat to Istha ahead of their Australian premiere at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Turning a deeply personal exploration with fertility and trans reproductive healthcare into a performance might sound daunting, but for Istha it came from both curiosity and need. "First and foremost, I’m a problem solver. Most of my shows begin as an attempt to untangle a real problem in my life. My partner and I are both trans and we wanted to find a sperm donor. However, when we looked at sperm banks, the information we got - like eye colour, height, academic achievements - felt meaningless," they tell me. "What we really wanted to know was if they were kind, and if we aligned on bigger things like ethics and morals. I made a passing comment to my partner that it would be great if we could just interview people face-to-face before picking a donor. And that throwaway comment spiralled into this!"

The Birds Descend on Melbourne Fringe with Sun, Sand and Imminent Doom

Sons of Stratford are back this Melbourne Fringe with Birds, a piece where sun, sand, and impending doom collide. Shayna and Beverley lounge in deck chairs, chain-smoking and chatting about the world’s most trivial and ridiculous obsessions, all while the sky literally falls around them. We caught up with performers Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford to discuss the thrill of revisiting sharing the stage, the chaos of their creative process, and why, after years of solo and collaborative work, nothing about Birds is predictable.

While the pair have collaborated on numerous productions over the years (including To Schapelle and Back, Putting On A Show and Girl Culture), this is the first time in a decade they are joining forces on stage. This unique arrangement was sparked by an idea from Stafford that perfectly suited Hines’ skills and presence. "Birds is something I've had in mind for a very long time," she says. "Having two women on the beach talking as the world ends. I pictured it being performed by myself and a drag queen so naturally, Alex got the part."

Piera Dennerstein is Bringing Plenty of Pleasure, Power, and Provocation to Melbourne Fringe

Pursuing Pleasure is a daring cabaret that mixes opera, pop, and cabaret sensibilities to explore what it means to accept joy, sensuality, and self-discovery. Piera Dennerstein, known for her dynamic performances, takes audiences on a journey that balances humour, vulnerability, and bold theatricality. Ahead of her Melbourne Fringe season, we sat down with the soprano to talk about how she transforms personal experiences into performance, the power of pleasure, and pushing boundaries on stage.

And no better way to begin than ask how a show that centres pleasure as a political and personal act has been a work in progress for years, even though Dennerstein didn't quite know it. "For the longest time, I thought I had nothing to say! I enjoyed writing and was a prolific poet, but whenever I was encouraged to write my own show, I felt I had no stories of value. In 2022, by chance, I saw Betty Grumble’s "Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t" at Brisbane Festival," she recalls. "It was unlike anything I had seen before: a composting of her experiences with domestic abuse, culminating in a communal rebirth fuelled by sisterhood and the power of female pleasure. I related so strongly that I spent the entire ovation typing into my Notes app. I had finally found something I needed to say!"

Comedy, Chaos and Crohn’s: Uma Dobia’s Intolerant (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Intolerant is the no-nuts-allowed cabaret where coffee, shellfish, and 400-page ingredient substitution guides come together in the name of fun. Performer Uma Dobia invites us into a meticulously chaotic world where attention to detail and a strict “never mention Brazil nuts” policy are the keys to survival. Ahead of her Melbourne Fringe season, we caught up with Dobia to talk allergies, absurdity, and how she turns life’s restrictions into full-blown comedy.

"I created Intolerant to help people understand what it’s like to live with allergies and Crohn’s disease, and, as a way to say “fuck you!” to these conditions that have ruled my life for so long," she tells me. "Initially I made a list of the funniest or most ridiculous anecdotes I have from allergy and Crohn’s mishaps. They couldn’t all make the final version, so ultimately I chose the ones that best served the purpose of the show. It was a tough decision! Some of my favourites got cut because they didn’t serve the story, but that’s okay. I’ll find a way to share them with the world!"

Are You There? review | Theatre Works

In Are You There?, Irene Korsten invites us into the office foyer at Autumn Dale Village, where three very different women navigate the chaos, humour, and subtle sorrow of everyday life. Over the course of a Friday, the energetic Pia, the feisty Colleen, and the sensitive but fading Lauren reveal the joys, frustrations, and the humanity of their routines, proving that the rhythm of life can still hold profound insight and emotional weight.

Josh McNeill's set is anchored in the main reception, practically designed with a desk, stationery, computers, and phones, but the characters make full use of the area under the guidance of Director Rachel Baring. Beyond the imagined walls, pockets of pebbles and flowers add visual texture, breaking the strict realism of the office and giving the stage a layered, theatrical quality. These understated details suggest that life and (most importantly) memories exist outside the confines of this environment, enhancing the audience’s sense of depth and imagination.

Son of Byblos review | Meat Market

Son of Byblos is an engaging family drama that explores the clash between cultural expectations and personal freedom within a Lebanese-Australian household. Adam (Amir Yacoub) is a 25-year-old gay man whose life is thrown a curveball when his closeted lesbian cousin announces she is marrying a man. This unexpected news forces Adam to confront who he is and what he wants from life. But in a tightly connected family where tradition runs deep, Adam’s journey of self-discovery is far from easy.

Anna Kaleeda Rasheed displays great energy as Claire, and her rapport with Yacoub is very impressive. Together, they convey a believable history, and the way they relate to one another shows an openness and trust they seldom share with to anyone else. Marjan Mesbahi is wonderful as Carol, Adam’s mother, notably in the release and joy she is exposed to from her tango lessons. Amir Rahimzadeh brings depth to John, the father, portraying him with a quiet authority that balances the family dynamics and adds weight to the emotional tension.

The Lark review | Arts Centre Melbourne

In The Lark, Noni Hazlehurst embodies Rose Grey, a woman saying goodbye to the pub that has been the backbone of her life for over fifty years. It’s not just a workplace but a living archive of family, patrons, and fleeting moments that have formed her story. As Rose prepares to close the doors for the last time, memories flood back - bittersweet, funny, and tender.


Hazlehurst is captivating on stage. Few performers can command your attention with sheer presence alone, yet it never feels like it's Hazlehurst we’re watching: it’s Rose. The gruffness, the hardness, the no-nonsense attitude shaped by decades behind a rowdy bar are compelling to watch. Beneath that tough exterior, flashes of vulnerability slip through as Rose lets her guard down. She strikes a delicate balance between these two states, her performance layered and deeply human. Even the way she carries her body shows the toll and texture of the years spent in the pub, and the way she looks out to the audience as she recounts her stories is steeped in memory.

Laugh Lines and Life Lessons with A Handful of Bugs' Jester's Privilege (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Handful of Bugs – Alex Donnelly and Lachie Gough – return to Melbourne Fringe with Jester’s Privilege, a dark comedy focusing on the divide between the public and private self through the eyes of a jester in a Queen’s medieval court. If there’s one thing this company is known for, it’s the collaborative and playful spirit with which they create and perform. So it’s no surprise that when we spoke to them, they responded to questions as a single voice. 

When I first heard they were making a work on someone approaching the sunset of their career, I worried they might be hinting at their own. Thankfully, the duo quickly put that worry to rest. "Even though we formed as a theatre company in 2023, everyone in the Bugs’ team has worked in the performing arts for many, many years," they tell me. "The show is somewhat inspired in particular by Lachie’s experience as someone who started comedy at 13, and discovered success during his teenage years. Now, he’s not at the end of his career, but the fear that he peaked too soon, or that his glory days have come and gone, has been an ongoing feeling since becoming an adult who is attempting to turn this craft into their full-time gig."

Step Inside the Kingdom of Mushrooms: An Immersive Sensory Adventure (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

A Kingdom of Mushrooms, Five Senses, Infinite Wonder and You. That's the name of the show, and in this immersive participatory experience at Melbourne Fringe Festival, audiences are invited to journey through five distinct installations, each transforming a single sense into a mushroom-fuelled world of discovery.

Jasmin Lefers, one third of Off The Spectrum, felt compelled to translate this small, seemingly simple organism into something so immersive after an introduction to a Dutch pioneer in the world of food and design. "It all started with late-night/early-morning educational sessions over Zoom," she explains. "Aaron, one of the trio involved in putting this together, introduced me to one of the pioneers in food design Marije Vogelzang. From there I put myself through a few courses such as Food & Design Dive. Being in the Netherlands the class times were anything from midnight to 4am. It was bloody incredible. Eye-opening, mind-blowing, and tiring."

Turning Retail Routine into Musical Comedy with Checked Out: The Musical (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Fresh from a musical about group assignments, Josh Connell and Steph Lee are turning their attention to the soul-sucking grind of retail work for this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. Checked Out: The Musical draws on their own experiences in the service industry to explore the challenges, annoyances, and unexpected absurdities of customer-facing jobs, all set to an engaging, lively soundtrack, while also providing a cracking critique of the wider systems that define modern work culture.

"It has definitely been super fun to turn retail experience into this heightened version of reality," Lee tells me. "But also the work has an element of saying ‘stuff you’ to these corporations that you work for. It feels freeing to release pent-up frustrations through humour and song."

a2 Company on going from Fringe Outsiders to Festival Firestarters (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Not many Melburnians would have known a2 Company this time last year, but after taking home the Best in Theatre award at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival for Running into the Sun, they’ve become a theatre company on everyone’s lips. Excitement is building as they prepare to return to the festival with their sophomore production, Motion Sickness.

It was an incredible season for the company, capped off by their win for Best Emerging Company. Toby Leman (composer and performer) and Ben Ashby (writer and performer) describe the experience as something like a fevered dream. "It still feels like a fairytale. I don't remember all the details from that night because it all happened so fast!" Leman says.