Split Ends review | The Motley Bauhaus

Autobiographical theatre walks a tightrope. When a story is this intimate, this traumatic, the danger is never just about being vulnerable on stage; it is whether the work can shape lived pain into something theatrically legible without flattening it, sensationalising it, or asking the audience for sympathy. The challenge is not about being honest, but about keeping control. To revisit periods of OCD, coercion, compulsion, and abuse of power, requires a level of precision that goes far beyond confession. It demands structure, restraint, and a clear artistic vision. Split Ends understands that risk from the outset, and rather than retreating from it, Claudia Shnier meets it head-on.

Split Ends unfolds across two intertwined narratives: Shnier’s private, painfully obsessive relationship with her hair, and the surreal relationship with her Vacuum boyfriend, who continues to suck the life out of her. Through puppetry, physical theatre, and sharp, sometimes jarring musical numbers, these stories become extremely vivid without losing their depth and resonance.

Jessie Ngaio Smith is prescribing connection, ritual and reflection in Magical Prescriptions | Midsumma Festival | Meat Market

In Magical Prescriptions, Jessie Ngaio Smith becomes a doctor of a different kind, offering ten-minute, one-on-one appointments where she listens, honours silences, and responds with a personalised artwork. Drawing on her own journey of chronic pain, misdiagnosis and dehumanisation in the medical system, Ngaio Smith uses the project to explore connection, intuition and ritual. We sat down with her to talk about where this unusual work began, what it asks of her and why she believes our systems of care need to be reimagined from the ground up.

Ngaio Smith’s experiences in the medical system, along with her time in the aged care and disability support sector, pushed her to look for the humanity that hides in a classic doctor’s appointment. "I was thinking about the strange, sad absurdity of us trying to source support and healing within the tight confines of a 15-minute bulk billed doctor’s appointment. I was also studying for my Certificate in Aged Care and Disability Support which was depressing and it forced me to recognise how broken and under resourced our systems of care are," she tells me. "I wondered to myself if art might offer something which feels so lacking in a doctor’s appointment; a connection that is wilder and weirder. It has been my experience that we are suffering, and it can be incredibly difficult to find someone who will actually listen and sit with the discomfort of witnessing suffering."

Have a Goodnight Walter review | The Butterfly Club

In Have a Goodnight Walter, Dean and Mary are a married couple living with Dean’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Checking that doors are locked, windows are shut, and monitoring the motion detector camera at the front gate are all common occurrences. One evening, an unlocked door threatens Dean’s fragile OCD management, as his intrusive thoughts begin to manifest through the people around him.
 
The 45-minute show immediately drops the audience into Dean’s headspace, with no preamble. We are told early on that Dean has OCD, but are offered no context for his extreme behaviour or mental state, which leaves us scrambling to make sense of why he is spiralling. Personally, I’ve never seen OCD portrayed in such a psychologically heightened way, involving feverish hallucinations. A better-defined introduction to Dean’s internal world would have helped ground the audience, making certain scenes more meaningful, such as why the police conduct a welfare check prompted by his OCD.

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.

Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen review | Arts Centre Melbourne

A 36 year old comedian walks onto a stage and tells us he's about to kill his boyfriend. A dark comedy centered on vulnerability, love and truth, Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen is a flawless piece of theatre that finds the perfect balance between generating plenty of laughs and plenty of heart. 

Marcelo Dos Santos has written an engrossing script full of razor-sharp humour and candid observations on contemporary living, particularly as a gay man. The story moves at a swift pace, but it simultaneously allows time to have us care for The Comedian and to reflect on our own similar stories and experiences, regardless of what our gender or sexuality may be.

Victory Lap review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Victory Lap is a semi-autobiographical one-person show by Mashaka Gunnulson that gently and sensitively explores mental health and suicide with a nostalgic look at friendships gone by, and what saying goodbye feels like.

This is a meditative tale where not much happens on stage but plenty takes place in our minds through Gunnulson's descriptive language and the vivid imagery it conjures. One particular scene where a character is visiting a morgue paints a highly detailed picture of what is being seen, heard and smelt. Their direction of Adam Marks as Billy is minimal yet considered as it allows the performance to be in tune with the tone of the story.

I'm Fine review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Saxon Evans is a 29-year-old dental assistant who is hurtling towards gay death... he is turning 30. But does his depression run deeper than just getting older? Written and performed by Evans, I'm Fine is a one-man play that explores millennial mental health and navigating self-acceptance and belonging.

Performing as a character based on himself, Evans has a pleasing presence on stage that is evident from the moment he appears. His pace, tone and delivery of lines highlight his personality and perspective of how he sees and understands the world around him, and in turn, establishes a strong connection with the audience.

Even as he deals with mental health, suicide and self-harm, Evans finds good doses of humour to scatter throughout I’m Fine, ensuring that we are never left overwhelmed with what we are learning and comprehending the gravity of the circumstances he is in.

While Evans is an engaging performer and the narrative is entertaining, the structure remains a little rough, particularly with its ending. Evans provides great insight into the mind of this angry dental assistant, but the final act feels hurried and concludes quite abruptly. Some re-working of this would ensure this part of the play is afforded the same care and consideration as the rest of the show.

The Almighty Sometimes review

Mental illness and identity take centre stage in Kendall Feaver's acclaimed The Almighty Sometimes. Anna (Max McKenna) is an 18-year-old with a mental illness who has been medicated for the last seven years. When she rediscovers short stories she wrote as a child, she begins to question how much of her personality and identity has been changed or hindered due to the medications she has been taking.

McKenna delivers an absolutely captivating performance as Anna. On the cusp of adulthood, they show Anna as simultaneously confident yet fearful, certain but confused. Their ability to constantly switch from sweet-natured and kind to rude and spiteful, sometimes within the same scene, is testament to the commitment McKenna has put in developing their character and making sure it is as authentic as possible. Nadine Garner as Anna's mother Renee, is highly compelling as she attempts to be understanding, nurturing and calm with what's happening to Anna while preventing the world that she has so carefully built from falling to pieces. Garner clearly displays the love that Renee has for her daughter and how desperate she is for her to lead a life without pain.

The Bisexual's Lament review | Lou Wall | Melbourne International Comedy Festival | ACMI

The Queen of the PowerPoint Presentations returns to Melbourne for their new show, The Bisexual's Lament, where Lou Wall covers the hectic last twelve months they have experienced. Some of it is horrific and traumatic but to get through it, Wall has made a list - they love lists! - of all the things that made them happy in the last 12 months. It's over 800 items so fortunately Wall has whittled it down to a reasonable 69.

Wall's traumatic year includes breaking up with their partner, which happened to also be their first break up, and sleeping with straight men, and that's not even the worst of it. The focus of the show is with Wall struggling to speed up the process of "comedy equals tragedy plus time" and while there is plenty of comedy for the audience, Wall allows for a more vulnerable and intimate side of themselves to be on display.

Dry Land review

Amy and Ester share very little in common, apart from their place in the school swim team. But dive a little deeper and these two women discover they actually have many things in common, as well as secrets of their own. In Ruby Rae Spiegel's Dry Land, we are introduced to the (private) lives of schoolgirls and the real issues they are facing.



Luce Wirthensohn (Amy) and Cassidy Dunn (Ester) have a great ability in giving layered performances for their complex characters, but they are let down by a script that throws too much at them and the characters end up being driven by the narrative rather than driving the narrative. Dry Land would have been far more effective had we focused on the relationship between Amy and Ester, and by extension their individual lives, and not introduced to a number of secondary characters that add little to the story.

Oh Great, It's Jessie Ngaio! (Midsumma Festival)

From a young age, Jessie Ngaio has fantasised about killing herself. Originally performed in early 2023, Oh Yuck, It's Me is her dark yet exceptionally entertaining exploration of sexuality, trauma and climate anxiety and finding the will to survive when everything seems stacked against you.

Ngaio received much acclaim during her original season, leading to two 2023 Green Room Awards for Best Performer and Best Production. In 2024, Oh Yuck, It’s Me returns as part of the Midsumma Festival, where she one again hopes to engage her audience with the wider themes of the show while offering an outlet of mutual laughter, vulnerability and honesty.

I Am Seaweed review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Theatre Works

It always seems like a badge of honour when someone asks you how you are and respond with "I am so busy". Working hard, learning a new craft, up-skilling, upselling, educating yourself. Constantly moving and doing. In I Am Seaweed, Cheryl Ho contemplates what it would feel like to just be and enjoy what is.

Sheryl with an S - played by Cheryl with a C – is a teacher who thinks that by being busy she will find satisfaction in life. By being like seaweed, something that expands under pressure, her super zestful positive attitude and her "Slay Everyday Era" mantra, she's sure she can.

While only a portion of the space at Theatre Woks is utilised, director Tan Hui Er keeps the full stage open and visible. The black, empty areas serve as a reminder of what Sheryl is trying to avoid as well as offering a visual representation of what's happening in her mind with her thoughts projected as images along the wall.

Insomniac Mixtape review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

There is nothing worse than going to bed at a reasonable time and being awake all night. You've done all the right things to be able to fall asleep but to no avail. Insomnia is here. Telia Nevile knows exactly how that feels and in her cabaret comedy, Insomniac Mixtape, she takes us through her journey of restlessness and watching the clock tick tick tick away towards the morning sun.

She begins with a variety of exercises to get us sleeping, including visualisations and breathing techniques but despite her determination to stay in the present, Nevile's mind begins to race from worry to worry. It is clear from the laughter in the audience that we have all been there before too and perhaps some of us have been triggered by her thoughts and are now worrying about these exact same things.

Hot Fat Crazy review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

If being mentally unwell was as much fun as Hot Fat Crazy, I would have signed up years ago! Created and performed by Eadie Testro-Girasole and Thomas Bradford, this musical theatre comedy follows Eadie as she admits herself into a psych ward and begins to work through her anxiety and depression. But oh how we all laughed. A lot.

Testro-Girasole is absolutely charming and wins the audience over from the opening number, “Welcome to the Psych Ward”. She displays a vulnerable confidence that ground the character despite the wackiness and absurdity that takes place in this world, which makes sense given that this is based on her own psych ward admissions. Bradford is the perfect pairing to Testro-Girasole, brilliant in all of his over-the-top characters, particularly when he is Eadie's diary and as a homophobic cat. Yes, a homophobic cat.

Pulling an all-nighter with Telia Nevile (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

There is a lot that keeps Telia Nevile up at night. So much so that she decided to make a new Melbourne Fringe Festival show about it. In Insomniac Mixtape, Nevile takes a deep dive into the subconscious, where she talks and sings through the real and imagined things that go through her - and your - mind in the middle of the night.

"My brain has a love of chasing its tail, and periodically lighting its hair on fire while it does this," she explains. "Combine that inclination with being a very light sleeper and the result is long periods of staring at the ceiling when I want to be sleeping. The things that wake me up in the middle of the night vary wildly, but are usually driven by anxiety, stress, or an inability to stop turning a problem over. Then again, sometimes it’s the snoring beside me. Occasionally it's a loud car or our downstairs neighbours. It’s a lucky dip of sleepless treats!"

Moth review

In Declan Greene's Moth, two teens narrate a chain of events that lead to a tragic outcome for a pair of high school outcasts that leaves one unconscious and one missing without explanation. It's a fast-paced two-hander that highlights themes around mental health and identity through the friendship of these two people and the shared - and individual - experiences they go through growing up together.

Admittedly, I had some trepidation of whether a play written in 2010 about two teenagers would be relevant in 2023 but fortunately Moth still feels fresh and innovative. Greene depicts the horrors of high school and the long-term impact these instances can have, through authentic teenage voices and one can only imagine the power of this work back when it was performed.

BATSHIT review | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Darebin Arts Speakeasy

Leah Shelton's grandmother spent three months at Heathcote Hospital mental institution simply because she wanted to leave her husband. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic and listed with having various symptoms of "hysteria". In BATSHIT, Shelton digs deeper into her grandmother's incarnation as well as the scores of women through history who have been labelled crazy, hysterical or a nutjob (to name a few). It's a uniquely Leah Shelton show with plenty of surprises and awakenings along the way.

If anyone knows how to make an entrance, it is Shelton. Wearing a flowing emerald green gown and gloves and looking like she has just walked out of a hairdresser with her blonde bob, she is the perfect combination of a Hollywood starlet and a Stepford wife - apart from the gag in her mouth and an extended limb. It's a skill that Shelton utilises throughout the show, where she can simultaneously entertain while having a mood of disquiet permeating in the space.

Leah Shelton has gone completely BATSHIT for Melbourne Fringe

Acclaimed performer Leah Shelton returns to Melbourne Fringe with her third solo show, BATSHIT, in which she explores the history of female madness. While it brings to light how mental health was - and still is - utilised to control women, the main source of inspiration comes from a more personal connection, Shelton's grandmother, Gwen.

"My grandmother was incarcerated at the Heathcote Hospital mental institution in Perth, and she was given a cocktail of drugs and ECT treatments without her consent for basically wanting to leave her husband. This was in the 1960s, but the pathologisation of women is still a real problem today," Shelton tells me. "Women are often framed as hysterical, irrational, mentally ill in a court of law as a way of undermining their credibility or they are seen to be imagining symptoms in a medical system. They're also twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, panic disorder, phobias, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, eating disorders and PTSD, and seven times more likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, so it’s fair to say it’s a long-standing systemic problem."

Patrick Livesey's "Naomi" and destigmatising conversations on mental health and suicide

Patrick Livesey's mother took her own life in 2015. While mourning her, a number of questions began to gnaw away at Livesey's mind, including how did this happen and who was to blame? To answer these, Livesey spent over 30 hours interviewing people who knew their mother and it was these conversations that guided their new play, Naomi, which will have its Melbourne premiere at the Melbourne Fringe Festival next month.

Sharing such a story with strangers and with Naomi's friends and family was never going to be easy but it was something Livesey felt compelled to do. "Very early on after mum died, there was this feeling that this was something I wanted to share with people. It became clear to me how much storytelling is a means of healing or finding hope in total darkness. When my mum died, the stories I told myself about her and about what happened were what I clung to for survival. They were by far the most important tools for me in figuring out how to deal with the grief so as a storyteller myself *flips hair* it seemed obvious that at some point I would share those stories.” Livesey laughs.

Variations or Exit Music review | La Mama Theatre

Variations or Exit Music takes a deep look at one person's three great loves and their struggle to see through the heartbreak and believe in the possibility of finding love again. Written and directed by Justin Nott, it is a personal response to his past relationships and the depression that these breaks ups brought on.
Despite its personal nature, Nott's script easily connects with his audience. The conversations, the thoughts and the dreams that are portrayed on stage, are the exact same ones we've all had - regardless of sexuality. It is intense and reflective with moments of light humour. At times, he runs the risk of mashing together a number of complex ideas with long scenes but this is balanced out with shorter, simpler exchanges, like when Justin and his partner Sam share everything they have done for each other.