Spring has sprung early, here’s how to make the most of it in Melbourne

Spring has sprung early this year in Melbourne, and as arts and culture lovers emerge from hibernation, they may find themselves facing economic headwinds as well as the city’s marvellously moody weather.

Luckily, it’s just the season when our independent arts scene blossoms, the fringe takes centre stage, and the richness and diversity of Melbourne’s arts calendar leaves us no shortage of choice when it comes to free, inexpensive, and underground events. Here’s a guide for cost-conscious connoisseurs, with a few big-ticket items should you have the chance to splash out.

MELBOURNE FRINGE FESTIVAL

It doesn’t get more grassroots than the Melbourne Fringe Festival (October 1–20), which started in 1982 with a motley group of artists called the Fringe Network staging an alternative mini-festival. (And at the risk of making you hate inflation more than you already do, back then, they charged patrons two bucks for access to the full program.)

Werewolf by Van Badham is at Melbourne Fringe Festival. 

Prices are still very affordable at Melbourne Fringe, even though its post-pandemic incarnation is bigger than ever. The main hub at Trades Hall in Carlton hosts the lion’s share of more than 300 shows. Its pop-up bars become a lively annual stomping ground for bohemians of every stripe, but the festival has long since expanded into a carnival of venues dotted across the CBD and inner suburbs, supercharging the city with the spirit of artistic adventure.

You’ll find a much greater range of performances from the experimental edges of theatre, dance, cabaret, circus and other yet-to-be-categorised forms at Fringe. Hot tip: Fringe is also an unofficial testing ground for comics working up new material for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so you can catch some laughs, cheap, before everyone else does.

Wait, did you say more than 300 shows? Navigating the open-access program is challenging … and let’s face it, Fringe fare is by nature unpredictable. There’s no silver bullet here (and no accounting for taste), but if you need to trim your fringe search, you could do worse than consider the top five things I’m looking forward to seeing at Fringe:

Bad Boy will intrigue at Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Bad Boy Victoria’s most decorated playwright, Patricia Cornelius, continues her collaboration with director Susie Dee and performer Nicci Wilks to bring us an uncompromising take on misogyny and domestic violence. Their last effort, Runt, was arresting, and no serious theatre lover should miss this one. 45downstairs, September 26 to October 6.s

Feast Maverick performance ensemble Pony Cam follows up their interactive odysseys into youth and age (Anything You Can Do), personal theatre history (Grand Theft Theatre), and artistic burnout (Burnout Paradise) by serving a theatre dining experience, Feast. I’m totally not going to vouch for the quality of the food, but after experiencing their thought-provoking, joyously offbeat work, you’re unlikely to come away unsatisfied. Pony Cam, The Substation, October 9-19.

Secret Symphony, MSO I’ve been to fringe events in artists’ lounge rooms and underground car parks. Once, I even saw a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit staged in a public toilet. Still, nothing quite matches the thrill of a secret location. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will be staging a concert for classical music lovers, though you’ll have to do a bit of sleuthing to track it down. Secret location, October 18.

Lawrence Leung brings his bag of tricks to Melbourne Fringe Festival.Credit: Simon Schluter

Locus Immersive theatre has become a mainstream trend. Locus brings the idea to magic. At another secret location, design, stage illusion, and the talent of local magicians Lawrence Leung, Vyom Sharma, and Dom Chambers will converge, and audiences will be guided through six spaces. Secret location, October 10–18.

Werewolf It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a play by Van Badham, who’s better known as a journalist and author these days. Her recent book Qanon and On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Theories certainly made compelling reading, so her subversive noir thriller Werewolf, about a fascist speaking tour arriving in Melbourne, might herald an equally compelling return to the stage. Arts Centre Melbourne, October 16–26.

OTHER FESTIVALS

Fringe tends to take up most of the oxygen in the room, but Melbourne has a welter of other spring festivals and expos catering to every taste, from the lively celebration of Italian food, wine and culture at the Italian Festa (Royal Exhibition Buildings, October 5-6) to the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (November 14-24), the annual gathering of local creatives from the video game industry at PAX (Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 11-13) and Melbourne’s BDSM community strutting their stuff at the OzKink Festival (October 10–20).

Darcy Brown plays Victor Frankenstein, the scientist who plays God.Credit: Joel Devereux

ON THE EAST END

If whips and chains are a bridge too far, Melbourne’s famed East End theatre district offers more mainstream pleasures. A new production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with elaborate prosthetics for the Monster, is now in its last days at the Princess Theatre. I can highly recommend Six, a musical that resurrects the six wives of Henry VIII as pop stars, playing at the Comedy Theatre until October. The Australian Ballet will be based at the Regent this spring, staging Oscar, an original new ballet based on the life and work of Oscar Wilde, before the Sister Act musical storms into town in November.

Disney’s magnificent Beauty and the Beast continues at Her Majesty’s and will be joined by Tina, the musical biography of Tina Turner, at the Princess come September. And in what seems to have cemented a Christmas tradition, Matthew Wharcus’ charming production of A Christmas Carol (Comedy Theatre, November) will return for the third year running. No word on which celeb will play Ebenezer Scrooge yet – it was David Wenham in 2022 and Game of Thrones star Owen Teale last year – so stay tuned.

Antoinette Halloran and Ben Mingay star in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.Credit: Daniel Boud

OPERA

I mentioned in a previous guide the odd coincidence of two operas adapted from the works of Helen Garner and Murray Bail – The Children’s Bach at Theatre Works this week and Jonathan Mills’ adaptation of Eucalyptus at the Palais (October 16-19). Other full-dress productions on offer include Vic Opera’s Sweeney Todd (Arts Centre Melbourne, September 14), Melbourne Opera’s La Bohème (The Athenaeum, September 15-24), and Opera Australia touring The Magic Flute (GPAC, November 9-16) to Geelong.

Suzan-Lori Parks’ contemporary classic Topdog/Underdog.Credit: Jo Duck

OTHER STAGE HIGHLIGHTS

Stage highlights from spring don’t end there. At the MTC, hotly anticipated shows run from Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize winner Topdog/Underdog, to a musical adaptation of Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career. Over at the Malthouse, there’s a camp apocalypse of a Christmas panto, F--- Christmas (from November 27), for anyone who craves an alternative to mainstream festive cheer. Theatre aficionados will be drawn to Daniel Keene’s Mother, starring Noni Hazlehurst (Arts Centre Melbourne, September 4-21). Keene writes powerfully when it comes to giving voice to the marginalised, and if you haven’t seen Hazlehurst perform live, you’ll be floored by what she can accomplish onstage.

One last hot pick: a production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros from director Cassandra Fumi (45downstairs, October 31 to November 17). The play’s vision of a town where people transform into rhinoceroses, one by one, has fresh resonance in the age of social media. On the strength of last year’s adaptation of Dostoevsky’s short story The Crocodile, it should be a funny and stylish take on the absurdist classic.

AND THE REST IS UP TO YOU

Dance and music got a little short-changed in this guide – sorry, I’ll make it up next time – but in truth, no guide can cover the vast profusion of cultural activity and community across the city in springtime. Staying alert and curious is key. Melbourne breeds creative ferment in almost every nook and cranny. It mightn’t always give up its secrets easily, the rewards are richer for making the effort to discover them.

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