Melbourne Fringe Festival is back from 30 September to 19 October, featuring an enormous program of boundary-pushing art.
From parties to radical conversations and even live tattooing on stage, many artists in this year’s lineup have a focus on disability issues.
Check them out below:
Power move: Meet Me at the Disco
The dance floor will come alive with a very special appearance by one of Victoria’s most exciting inclusive physical theatre companies, BoilOver Performance Ensemble, in this celebration of 1970s and 1980s music and disco moves.
Meet Me at the Disco is a high-energy, disability-led celebration of dance, self-expression, and classic disco hits and outfits. The disco-lover’s paradise, it will feature Power Move’s illuminated kinetic light up floor and vintage get up, and a live set of disco classics by Melbourne composer and sound artist Ciaran Frame.
Why are we so shit at access in Australia and what are we going to do about it?
Join arts and cultural leaders as they share their local, national, and international experiences of innovative and exceptional access. They’ll discuss the key drivers that prevent and allow exceptional access to emerge, and grapple with how we can all be doing better on the access front. This is the fourth discussion in Melbourne Fringe’s Radical Access Conversation Series.
Tattoo show
Tattoo Show is a live art, truth and dare show hosted by the Rawcus Ensemble and a professional tattoo artist. Each night they ask for a volunteer from the audience to be interviewed then inked on stage. Tattoo Show is simultaneously heartwarming and unorthodox, high art and low art. It examines themes of trust, taboos and memory in an accessible night out with permanent repercussions. Rawcus is an award-winning and critically acclaimed long-term ensemble of artists with and without disability.
Is Anyone Even Watching
A glitter and girl-pop fuelled exploration of identity, exclusion and being unapologetically you. ‘Is Anyone Even Watching?’ is a joyous work of experimental theatre that challenges beauty standards, ableist stereotypes, and societal expectations. Olivia Muscat is a totally blind writer, actor, performer and disability activist. She uses her love for colour, joy and music to tell stories that make people want to examine their attitudes towards disabled people and differences in general.
Flesh Mirror
Blurring speculative fiction with personal narratives, Flesh Mirror unfolds in a vivid, unstable present where memory bends and parallel realities emerge. Flesh Mirror weaves together references from sci-fi films, pop songs, cultural theory and biographical content from the Weave ensemble. Weave Movement Theatre is a bold, diverse dance/theatre company made up of disabled performers. Since its formation in 1997 the company has helped to expand inclusive practices – making the stage an area for dynamic and exploratory performance.
Wasteworlds: Non-stop Runway Show
An all-ages, all-abilities event featuring a six-hour continuous runway inside a large-scale installation made from textile waste. Participants are invited to create outfits using discarded clothing and materials, then walk the runway. Artists will assist with making. Sewing machines, safety pins, and styling supplies are provided. Audience members can also choose to spectate. No experience required. Created by Fast Fashun in Collaboration with Snuff Puppets.
CLUB FRINGE: Hygge
Hygge is a space for people to experience Club Fringe at all new levels of warm and fuzzy. Think gentle lighting, gentle furnishings and gentle energies. Featuring performances by Eora-based heartthrob Brendan Maclean, burlesque superstar Juniper Fox, Arrernte drag icon Stone Motherless Cold and spoken word by Naarm-based wordsmith Bo Bickmore. Wiradjuri choreographer and dancer Joel Bray will lead the throng in an interactive movement piece developed specifically for this low-sensory wonderland.