EdFringe
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Dinosaurs ― genuine and charismatic performances
Dinosaurs was my final show of the Fringe, and in the appropriately green Riddles Court, just off the Mile. Claire (Hailey Hudson), a grad student, comes home to find Norma the dinosaur (Mandy Rubeli) in her flat. Baffled and blaming her SSRIs, she enlists the help of her childhood friend Hayden (a steadily reassuring Devin Stone) to deal with her new, equally confused companion who is absorbing the future (‘Why is nothing chrome like they said it would be?’)
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FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT ― brilliant and incorrigibly charming
FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT is an Aussie production, with the book, music and lyrics by Bridie Connell and directed by Richard Carroll. It centres on the final leg of the farewell tour from four-piece boyband Fuccbois. We’re in the large Studio 2 at Assembly George Square, and it feels appropriately like a concert. The four performers introduce themselves as Brendan, Brendon, Tyler and also Brendan, and each have a distinct look and vapidness as befits a band put together on talent show ‘Sex Factor.’
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Chris Grace: 88% ― comedic lightness and theatrical sensibility
Chris Grace’s previous show, Sardines (‘a play about death’) is truly one of the most impressive pieces of solo theatre I think I’ve ever seen, and as such I am contractually obliged to see everything he does. His latest show, ‘88%,’ takes on whether you can get on with people you disagree with, starting with a friend’s casual racism as they walk through Stockholm.
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David Elms Describes a Room ― understated and charmingly soothing
David Elms’ show ‘David Elms Describes A Room,’ was a sell-out hit at last year’s Fringe, and the first improv of my stay this time. Elms is a veteran improviser and teacher, and he welcomes us to a stage furnished with just a chair, smiling with the unflappable calm of someone who has put in many hours on stage.
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Mothman: A Romance Musical ― breathlessly silly and fun
Mothman: A Romance Musical (a 2026 Fringe Fund recipient) is the brainchild of comedians Alex Franklin and Nikola McMurtrie, and follows three guileless teens in 1943 as they hunt for the mysterious Mothman, a folk legend who infamously appears just before someone dies. Our trio explore the woodland, with Anna (Alex Franklin) realising quickly that her celibate relationship with her boyfriend (Alex Prescot, also playing a French mole) of two years might not be as substantial as she had hoped, and contending with Natalie (Nikola McMurtrie) having him in her sights.
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Chelsea Birkby: Is In Full Control The Entire Time ― assuredly silly and energetic
Chelsea Birkby brings her latest Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Chelsea Birkby: Is In Full Control The Entire Time’ to Bunker 3 at Pleasance Courtyard. Dressed in an over-sized 1980s suit, she is here to tell us how to gain control over our lives, with the help of Powerpoint, an alter ego, and her mum’s self-improvement workbooks.
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‘The Bob Ross Effect’ ― earnest and genuine
The Bob Ross Effect stars Sarah-Louise Young as the titular character who, as she explains, is still inescapable on US television over thirty years since his death. His PBS show, ‘The Joy of Painting,’ ran for 11 years and was characterised by his catchphrase ‘we don’t make mistakes, we make happy accidents.’ Young starts in a similarly wholesome vein, chatting to audience members and getting one to pass out biscuits.
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CAMPITALISM: Three Gays Try to Fix The Economy ― anarchic, chaotic fun
CAMPITALISM: Three Gays Try to Fix The Economy is a show by Boy Theatre, Pleasance associate artists and receivers of funding from the Pleasance and Leicester Curve. The three performers are dressed in suits and caps from the waist up, and boxers and trainers from the waist down, which lends things a Just William-esque feeling of boyish anarchy from the start.
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‘Kate Dehnert: Echo’ ― emotional brutality and pithy wit
After Sophie Smyth’s show The Subplot, I went onto another Melbourne comic; Kate Dehnert. Her show ‘Echo’ is described as 1/3 play, 1/3 stand-up, 1/3 rave, which I was not aware of going in – I asked to review it after seeing it recommended by fellow Aussie Felicity Ward. I became aware of the rave element immediately, as the stage pulses with different coloured lights and Kate launches into a fast-paced anecdote set to thumping music about her long-term boyfriend managing to avoid yet another wedding they’ve been invited to.
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‘The Subplot: A Hyperfixation on the Titan Submersible’ ― blindingly impressive and human
The Subplot: A Hyperfixation on the Titan Submersible is a show by Melbourne performer and musical theatre graduate Sophie Smyth (‘writing her way in’), with direction and dramaturgy by Casey Gould, and produced by Linda Catalano for Quiet RIOT. Like much of the rest of the world, she tracked the 2023 Titan submersible disaster, from live news oxygen level countdowns, to the avalanche of gleeful memes, and to the eventual discovery that the participants had died almost immediately.