Seen & Heard review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

It's been almost ten years since Rebecca Church debuted Seen & Heard - a variety show which gives voices to performers who do not have the opportunity to often speak due to their chosen careers. Think circus and burlesque performers, drag queens and sex workers. In this format, these people share personal stories that surprise, entertain and inform us as to who the person behind the persona is. After a six-year gap, the show returns to Melbourne Fringe for a new season, new storytellers and new stories under the direction of Church.

Wes Snelling is our host for the evening and he does a wonderful job of making sure this mixed bag of misfits stay on track. Of course, Snelling's alter ego Tina del Twist is a different story, causing a ruckus in the audience with her fishbowl of wine. Snelling's recount of his Rock Eisteddfod dreams is quite affecting and a reminder that no one puts Wes in the corner and there is no such thing as a small role.



Lazy Susan, recently announced as a cast member in the upcoming season of Drag Race Down Under, is a sheer delight as she discusses the reality of getting old and whether Botox is the way to go. This has Lazy Susan recalling how much she has pushed herself to achieve drag success and how her mother's cancer diagnosis impacted one of the biggest successes of her career. These performers are always so fierce and in control on stage and you can be caught off guard seeing them be genuinely vulnerable and emotional.

Con 2077 review |Melbourne Fringe Festival | Trades Hall

It’s the year 2077 and it’s been fifty years since a meteor wiped out every comedian on earth. Every single one. Except one. Con Coutis. And he is humanities last hope. Woken up from a cryosleep, Con must now try and rediscover the hidden artform known as “the joke” and save the world. Intense stuff. Fortunately, Coutis easily finds the humour in such a dire situation resulting in plenty of laughs with Con 2077.

The show begins with a bit of straightforward stand-up with Coutis discussing his recent move to Brunswick but his quirkiness and the true nature of Con 2077 gradually begins to come through. The further we get into this epic adventure, the more out there the acts become. Despite such high stakes – the world will never laugh again! – Coutis keeps the tone and pace calm and allows time for his jokes to breathe. The way he can simultaneously go big but stay small is quite an achievement.

A Scary Thing Happened By The CAMPFIRE review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Where do men go to become better men? Camping of course. In circus show A Scary Thing Happened By The CAMPFIRE, two mates go bush not knowing they are being stalked by a forest dwelling creature. Escaping the beast proves more difficult than it sounds, as it may involve them talking to each other about ... their feelings.

The show is co-created by Alonso Pineda, Samuel Boyd, Louis Green and Griffin Hooper, with Pineda and Boyd serving as directors and Green and Hooper as performers. As circus, it is very entertaining and recent NICA graduates Green and Hooper display great skill in their paired acrobatics as well as their solo routines. There are a few wobbles here and there, but seeing them work through them and eventually execute them is where the excitement of circus comes from.

The idea of two men going camping and having to deal with their emotions and talk to each other through horror circus is an extremely interesting one but unfortunately this is where the show misses the mark. A stronger narrative is needed to bring this together as it is too abstract and vague in its current form, especially the conclusion which is quite muddled and confusing as to how we've reached this ending.

Assigned Magician at Birth review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

We all have a part of ourselves we don’t present to the outside world, the secret self that we don't want anyone to know about. Tricksy Collins has been doing that for many years. She has been an award-winning comedian but … also a professional magician. Quelle Horreur!!! But she’s ready now to publicly embrace the title of magician and in Assigned Magician at Birth, she talks about the magic community and the challenges of trying to fit in when something is not quite right.

Collins is completely in her element and while there are some nerves apparent in the opening moments, her rapport with the audience quickly has them onside and she begins to enjoy herself with her acts and her audience even more so.

This Is The Dust We're In review | Hot Lunch | Melbourne Fringe Festival | Meat Market

Goodness, This Is The Dust We're In is an absolutely delightful show. Hot Lunch research and investigate existing stories and narratives, and in this production, they have turned their heads to Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, referred to as "the most famous Australian play ever written", with its exploration of growing up, gender norms, masculinity and idealisation vs. reality. It’s a lot to unpack in an hour, but Hot Lunch make use of every second to cover this and then some.

Written, developed and performed by Delta Brooks, Rebekah Carton, Thomas Richards and Henry Kelly, the quartet present their analysis in three parts: Nostalgia, Growing Up and Dreams vs Reality. Themes, characters and passages are utilised from the text liberally and loosely that allows Hot Lunch to place their own interpretation of how we can come to understand such an influential text.