Conversations with a Fried Egg review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Meat Market

At some point during Conversations with a Fried Egg, I stopped trying to make sense of what was unfolding before me and simply let it happen. Three rats and an egg debate life, hunger, and purpose in a world that feels both fantastical and oddly familiar. It’s strange, funny in bursts, and tinged with melancholy, but at times, it gets wrapped up in its own absurdism that it leaves you watching from a distance rather than being drawn in.

Absurdist theatre isn’t trying to explain the world, it’s showing what happens when logic falls apart. It puts us right in the middle of the mess and repetition that make up everyday life, the constant hunt for meaning in things that often don’t have any. It’s not really saying life is hopeless, just that it’s kind of ridiculous, and we’re all making it up as we go. The discomfort comes from seeing ourselves in that chaos, laughing one moment and wondering what on earth we’re doing the next.

Birds review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Meat Market

From the second Birds takes flight, it’s clear this isn’t your typical beach getaway. With sharp wit, absurd scenarios, and a darkly playful edge, the show sets up a world that’s equal parts hilarious and unsettling. It's perfectly primed for Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford to deliver performances brimming with nihilistic humour and outrageous awareness.

The pair may be portraying ladies who’ve traded lunch for a beachside drink, yet they’re still very much in their (questionable) designer kaftans and planning their own brunches. Hines plays Shayna, a wealthy five-time divorcee who has lost her entire family to a blimp accident, but couldn’t care less. Stafford’s Beverley, on the other hand, is a mother of twelve boys who has escaped to the beach in frustration after her husband ruined her birthday. This unlikely friendship sees the ladies supporting one another through some of the toughest periods of their lives, from running out of sunscreen to guessing what the secret sound is on Smyle and Smacki-O’s radio program.

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."

Serving up absurdity, friendship, and existential eggs in Conversations with a Fried Egg (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

In a kitchen where existential eggs meet sharp-tongued rats, Ivy Crago and Maxine Palmerson examine friendship, vulnerability, and the absurdities of everyday life. Presented by Big Dog Theatre, the creators of the upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival show, Conversations with a Fried Egg, turn the mundane into the deeply meaningful as they bring to the stage a relationship between an optimistic egg and three rats looking for connection.

"Giving an egg an existential voice came straight from lived experience," Crago laughs. "I’m an incredibly existential thinker, and agnostic and optimistic. When creating this, we wanted the audience to have a good time, but also to ponder about the world, in a comedic way. I really loved being able to bring in comedy while making people think big!”

Palmerson nods. “I’ve struggled to let go of the whole chicken-or-egg issue. The only logical answer is that eggs - like snails and a great many other things - are more mystically powerful than we give them credit for. And I’ve never been religious, so this isn’t spiritual advice!”

YOU CAN DO IT! (Follow Your Dreams) review | The Motley Bahaus

Presented by Easy Killer Productions, YOU CAN DO IT! (Follow Your Dreams) is the motivation we all need to go out and achieve big things, including suicide. This extremely dark comedy is not for the faint-hearted, that begins with two very disappointed and frustrated parents whose loser son can't even successfully kill himself.



Written by Simon Patrick Berman, YOU CAN DO IT! has dialled the absurdism to the max. This satirical look at families and perceptions of success kicks off with opening credits introducing us to the family to a warped Brady Bunch theme. We are definitely not about to watch something consisting of three very lovely girls.

Top 10 Shows of 2024

Another year gone, another year of extraordinary theatre created and performed in Melbourne. I only managed to get to 111 shows (the shame!), due to being out of the country for four months, but as I have been doing for over a decade, I must compile a top ten list.

I say this every year but it's something that deserves repeating every year: sometimes the show that you remember for a long time after, is not the big splashy extravagant piece with recognisable names and a huge budget, but the one that was on for four nights with ten people in the audience. Support your independent theatre makers and venues - some can cost you as little as $20 and can be the most original, inspiring and thought-provoking performances you might see.

There's already plenty to get excited about in 2025, so I urge you to take a risk, seek something new, unknown and different in the new year.

And here are my top ten shows of 2024:

The Roof Is Caving In review | La Mama Theatre

There's nothing quite like the excitement of moving into your own home and the freedom of doing what you want when you want. But there's always a dark cloud looming over you as you are at the beck and call of real estate agents and trying to foster a mutual relationship of respect between these strangers you have chosen to live with. In The Roof is Caving In, two university students move into their first share house and face the internal and external struggle of constantly compromising to hold on to the serenity and exhilaration of being in their first home away from home.

Written by Matilda Gibbs with Belle Hansen and Jack Burmeister, The Roof is Caving In is a highly entertaining absurdist look at the challenges in renting such as rent prices, housemate dramas and the vulnerable position renters are regularly in. The narrative moves at a rapid pace but still takes the time to highlight these issues while building towards its inevitable climax.

The Sun and the Hermit review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Motley Bauhaus

From the moment Belinda Anderson-Hunt enters the room, you can tell that The Sun and the Hermit is going to a very unique show. Anderson-Hunt's experience and learnings from French clown school Gaulier are entirely on display here as she creates multiple imaginary worlds that feel authentic and much-loved.

The stage has a number of pieces of furniture and props all draped with white sheets. It's a house full of memories but very much neglected. There is dust everywhere. This sense of melancholy lingers in the space with the idea that as adults we forget how to play. The sheets are gradually removed and the restraint that Anderson-Hunt exhibits with each of her characters is inspired and extremely effective in building up the anticipation as to what will come next.

Rakali review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

A seachange is said to be an effective way to reassess what you value most in life and to gain new perspectives. But what about a riverchange? For Emma, Kevin and their four-month-old baby, it could be a devastating decision. On the surface, Australian gothic horror Rakali depicts a couple being terrorised by a water rat intent on eating their baby, but dive deeper and it's a sharp commentary on parenthood and family.

Alex Duncan's script may live in the realms of absurdity but it firmly establishes its world early on and we can accept this wild river-ride. We are kept guessing the entire time if the baby will be eaten whenever the rakali is nearby. Duncan fuses horror, comedy and drama into a tight 60 minutes as we learn about the conflicts and struggles that Emma and Kevin are facing externally and internally.

Jazz Or A Bucket Of Blood review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

It seems to be an unwritten rule that the later your Fringe Festival show is scheduled, the more outlandish and wacky the show will be. Jazz or a Bucket of Blood is a great example of this. Performed by

Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt, the hour of sketch comedy takes us to some weird but extremely amusing places with the two performers (hopefully) playing extremely heightened versions of themselves.

The matching outfits of grey shorts and blue shirts give them a childlike disposition, like they are wearing a school uniform, lending some credibility to them being somewhat naive and innocent with what they say and do. Some. Because a lot of what they say and do is very much on the other side of that spectrum. Try Lavoipierre's instructions on how to make friends and you'll probably realise this is most definitely not the way to make friends - but a great way to endear yourselves to the audience in your comedy show.

The sketch comedy show that's asking life's big question: is it jazz or a bucket of blood? (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

It's the age-old question: is it jazz or a bucket of blood? It has divided people even deeper than what colour that dress actually was. Performers Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt at least hope to answer the former with their upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival season of Jazz Or A Bucket Of Blood. Their hour of absurd humour and quirky perspectives have left audiences around the world - most recently at Edinburgh Fringe Festival - utterly fixated and astounded.

With Lavoipierre's solo show also having an equally eccentric title (Your Mother Chucks Rocks and Shells, and also playing at Melbourne Fringe), she and Watt are certainly displaying a knack for coming up with unique show names, but what comes first, the title or the content? "I don’t think you’re meant to do it like this but I’m only going to write something new after I turn out a title that makes me laugh," Lavoipierre says. "The idea happens quickly and then I say it to a few of the silliest people I know and see if they laugh too, and that’s the entire process."

Social Dance review

In Social Dance, audience members have been invited to Suzie Spittle's dinner party in which she intends to present the first instalment of her 10 part lifestyle series "Etiquette in the Modern Age with the Spittles." Alongside her husband, two children and French exchange teacher, Suzie is here to help bring decorum and class back into our lives, but all is not all that it appears with cracks beginning to form in the Spittle’s facade of living the dream life.

Writer and director Laura McKenzie has designed the production so we are all seated around a large table setting with the Spittles. It's a great immersive approach to the show and while all the action happens around the dinner table, McKenzie allows her characters to move in the space and be active as much as possible.

Grim review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Motley Bauhaus

Goodness. What a devilish delight that Grim is. Ellen Grimshaw plays Grim, an alien who gets pushed off their Mum's spaceship on their way to Data Collection Headquarters in Hollywood, landing in a Pepsi ad audition in Carlton. What? Yup. It's extremely ridiculous but if you accept it and move on, you get to really enjoy the performance by Grimshaw, the absurd humour and the chance to consider what the cost of always trying to please people can be.

Grimshaw is superb in this role. She completely gives herself over to Grim with the stuttering voice, the physicality and the outlandish red costume with accompanying wig. The alien language that she creates might sound like a bunch of nonsense but it genuinely feels like she's gone and made a specific noise for its equivalent English word, and whether she has or not is beside the point as it is still works on that level.

Just Jolks review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

I've been reviewing Barnie Duncan's shows in Melbourne since 2017. They have focused on physical theatre and comedy, both on his own or sharing the stage with other performers like Dani Cabs or Trygve Wakenshaw. These have always had Duncan playing a character or telling a story. But not anymore. For his new show Just Jolks, Duncan has removed all gimmicks and distractions and attempts to tell us jokes, the whole jokes and nothing but the jokes. He is a real comedian now.

Having evolved from physical comedy, Duncan needs to ensure we are aware of the advanced rules and conventions of joke telling. We go through what crowd work means and if he's going to do it or not, the mechanics of observational humour and even the apparatus required for this fresh form of comedy. Such is his skill in comedy that even with his matter-of-fact facial expressions and earnest tone, it's impossible to resist laughing at everything he says, particularly with his loose fitting colourful shirt, white singlet and red cap (and everyone knows real comedians wear black).

Dr. Brown Beturns review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Malthouse Theatre

Dr. Brown Beturns is Dr. Brown's return to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 11 years. Having seen his award winning show back then, there was much excitement and anticipation as I took my seat in the theatre to see what wackiness he has concocted after all this time. Performed entirely in silence - with the exception of a few grunts - Dr. Brown portrays an older man who despite living a simple life, has not lost his cheeky spark.

Audience participation is a staple in this show, and sitting in the back is not going to protect you. You can smell the fear emanating from audience members as Dr. Brown sniffs out who his volunteer will be. What was particular joyful about this night was the slight audience revolt, with those on stage (playfully) not taking any of his shit, making even Dr. Brown not know what was going to happen next and improvise where scenes went. It is always fascinating to watch the power dynamics between performer and audience volunteer unfold.

Juniper Rising review (Melb Fringe)

The world came to a standstill when this powerful iconic woman recently passed away.  It was a national day of mourning in virtually every country. Everyone had a story or opinion about her life. It was a unique life and one that no one else will ever come close to experiencing. I am, of course, talking about Juniper Wilde, who accidentally committed her own suicide. Presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Alex Hines resurrects her alter ego Juniper Wilde in Juniper Rising.

There is one word to describe this show and it is looooooose. SO loose. But Hines thrives on it. She THRIVES. She feeds off the chaos and crazy like a soul-sucking demon feeds off humans. Like a demon in hell. Where Juniper finds herself. But behind all this, there is craft, and it is clever and stupid and absolutely hilarious and frenetic. Hines can take a ridiculous idea and make something hysterical out of it or she'll make a drive-by comment and move on. You never quite know what's going to happen next, and sometimes, you get the feeling that Hines isn't even sure. But it works so brilliantly in Juniper Rising.

Traversing the after life with iconic superstar Juniper Wilde

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the theatre, Juniper Wilde is back with more zest for life than ever be- oh, she's dead. That's right, the icon that is Juniper Wilde has died after losing a lip-sync battle in Hades. But fear not Wildlings, because Juniper has a plan to return to the world but it does involve making a deal with the devil.

If that brief synopsis of Juniper Rising has confused you, then the brains behind the beauty, Alex Hines, has done her job, but it's not easy to create some very twisted and often dark sketches and comedy. "Usually my brain spits these fucked little ideas out at me and if it makes me laugh I’ll do it, even if literally everyone else says no," she explains. "With Wilde Night In and Juniper Rising I’ve been so lucky to have my collaborator and director Sarah Stafford by my side. I’ll go to her with the dumbest ideas and we’ll riff and she’ll shape until it’s a show. Before Sarah it was far more chaotic and unhinged, but she’s got this magical way of helping imagination come to life on stage."

To Schapelle and Back review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | The Butterfly Club

Alex Hines is having a pretty crappy birthday. Her dad is missing and Blockbuster is closed. What's a private schoolgirl on a swimming scholarship meant to do? Well not much, because the ancient doppelgänger curse is about to strike and Alex's life is about to become inextricably linked to that of Aussie icon, Schapelle Corby. Alex will need to go To Schapelle and Back in order to see the light on the other side in this incredibly twisted and outlandish Melbourne International Comedy Festival offering. 

While having some background knowledge about who Schapelle is would help with some of the show's subtle (and overt) humour and observations, its look at Australian culture and sense of identity is broad enough for everyone's entertainment. This isn't a show exclusively about Schapelle Corby. Hines' ability to take pop culture references, such as Mr. Squiggle, Big Brother and Chris Crocker, and mould them into something that can slide seamlessly into the Corbyverse is very impressive and reinforces the confidence that Hines has as a performer.

Poncho: Keep it Up! review | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | Malthouse Theatre

It's been five years since Dani Cabs' alter ego Poncho graced Melbourne stages and in that time, while he has definitely matured, his humour has fortunately not waned. In Poncho: Keep it Up!, our charming, orange, good-times seeker brings a mix of physical comedy, clowning and storytelling discussing ideas on who we are and what we should strive to be, that are equally entertaining and honest.

Armed with just a rack consisting of a variety of orange clothing on the stage, all eyes are on Poncho, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Poncho feeds off audience interaction and welcomes the occasional impromptu comment or laughter from the audience. Cabs is so comfortable in his Poncho skin that he is never thrown by audience suggestions or responses and remains and responds in character to whatever happens.

Cabs possesses great comedic timing and shares genuine engagement with his audience. During his storytelling/spoken word moments, even behind the facade of this Latin clown, there are interesting observations and statements made about identity and society that are even more potent given the comedic lens they are told through.

Bunny review (Melbourne International Comedy Fetival)

New Zealand performer Barnie Duncan returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a show that is quite unlike what he has done in the past. His trademark absurdity is still evident in Bunny, but Duncan's dissection of whether dancing at a nightclub at 3am was a way of dealing with his grief or avoiding it after his mother passed away last year, adds a level of intimacy and vulnerability that is often difficult to convey on stage.

While a few jokes don't land that well, or have been tacked on for a cheap laugh (Will Smith's Oscars behaviour is already such a tired punchline), Duncan shows strong control of the audience and meeting the expectations we have upon entering this surreal show about clubbing and death. The unique way in which Duncan sees and understands the world is clearly presented, and with an open heart he shares the complexities of dealing with grief and mourning the death of a loved one, particularly during a pandemic.