Our top picks at the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2026

Northcote Town Hall, Oct 7-10

Salt and freshwater meet in this free-flowing dance work from Wakka Wakka, Ngugi and Birrpai choreographer Ngioka Bunda-Heath. The first Aboriginal woman to graduate in dance from VCA, she has since worked with titans of the industry from Bangarra to Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin to Stephanie Lake. As performed with heart and soul by Brooklyn Bond (Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Bigambul) and Jackie Sheppard (Tagalaka, Dagalag), it’ll pull you into their stream.  

Trades Hall, Oct 7-18

Chloe, a 21-year-old boxer training for the 2012 London Olympics, punches above her weight. But she’s KOed by the sudden death of her trainer, the beloved dad who raised her single-handedly, in this bobbing and weaving drama from Dead Darling Theatre that heads to Melbourne after winning the Adelaide Fringe Artform Shaker Award. Starring an incandescent Shardae Santos, this one-woman show, written by Charlie Josephine and directed by Hannah Smith, will have you on the ropes.

Trades Hall, Oct 1-4

During the Great Depression, nefarious fascist forces tried to turn America towards the Nazis. Playwright Clifford Odets was having none of it, penning this fierce and furious rebuke. So ferocious was it that the play was banned when it made its way down to Australia. Refusing defeat, the New Theatre crew got around that censorious hurdle by performing it from the back of a truck. Almost a century later, local theatre heroes Katie Sfetkidis and Mark Wilson do likewise in the Trades Hall car park.

Argyle Square, Oct 3

All the Queens Men bring communities together in exhilarating fashion, whether it’s hosting the Coming Back Out Ball for LGBTQIA+ elders or inspiring kids with Toy. Almost a decade ago, Congress imagined a better public square, where folks could help shape the way we want to live. As toxic algorithms, AI and fake news endanger that, it’s back just in time, with writers including Maxine Beneba-Clarke, Fatima Measham and Beau Windon helping participants imagine maiden political speeches with heart.

Meat Market, Sep 29-Oct 3

Aotearoa-born, queer, neurodivergent and kinky visual and performance artist Jessie Ngaio has been making our creative spaces gleefully NSFW in riotous hits like Stickybeaks for years. Now, she tackles the biggest issue of our time, the terrifying climate crisis, in this cleansing ritual that promises profane poetry and smutty songs set to pounding beats and slutty visuals. Joined by co-creator Sian Horrocks on an altar of rot, this prayer for a filthier future might lead us all to salvation. 

Trades Hall, Sep 30-Oct 4

From worrying headline to headline, the arts are in disarray in Australia, as corporate-enslaved governments of all stripes savagely slash creative funding while bad faith actors drag those who try to champion our collective wealth. Indie theatre champions Ryan Hamilton and Georgie Wolfe, from queer collective Pigeon Pigeon, are here to fight back. Set during a prestigious awards night, Fuck Your Funding sees an army of restless artists take the arts minister hostage in this salty satirical swipe. 

Fed Square, Sep 29-Oct 18

Wiradjuri choreographer and star Joel Bray is one of the country’s most exhilarating gamechangers, bringing a vulnerable intimacy to his queerly informed dance movements. No matter your budget, this Melbourne Fringe you can see his latest work, the luminous Dhandha/Camp Fire, totally free on the western terrace of Fed Square. Set to sick beats from Black DJs, Bray and his dancers invite you to let loose and join them in the circle in this festival-long ode to connection. 

Trades Hall, Oct 14-18

Once upon a time, the French revolutionaries dealt with the have-their-cake-and-eat-it one per cent in the sharpest way possible. These days, the buffoonishly evil broligarchs and their past-it political hangers-on have somehow convinced the masses to play along. Award-winning funny person and powerful trans woman Anna Piper Scott and deaf artist Margot Morales are here to storm the barricades, with President Trump, Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Peter Thiel’s rubber necks on notice. 

Fortyfivedownstairs, Oct 1-11

Eric fell for Xavier in high school, but life isn’t always happily ever after, with the complicated geometry of their situationship taking on many shapes as they move through uni years and onto whatever happens next as real life hits. Playwright, filmmaker, artist and poet Eric Jiang draws deep on his experience of growing up Asian and queer in Australia in this sparkling work, featuring Lawrence Hawkins, Chad Rosete and Ken Paolo and directed by Guillotine’s Margot Morales.

The Laneway Theatre, Oct 1-17

Hello Darkness is Coming, my old friend. Draw back the veil and join Melbourne Magic Festival director Tim Ellis as he embraces the spooky spirit of Paris’ notorious Théâtre du Grand-Guignol to bring horror movie jump scares to his world-class sleight of hand. Portraying a psychopath whose already tenuous grip on reality is splintering like a broken mirror, his bloody hands attempt to put the shattered pieces back together again. In Fringe, no one can hear you scream.