Top Picks From The Melbourne Fringe Festival

The Melbourne Fringe Festival kicks off today, and as well as our thorough guide in this week's Inpress, we've enlisted national arts coordinator Cassandra Fumi to pick out some of the festival's highlights.

Dr Brown: Befrdfgth (comedy)

If you have not seen Dr Brown, you need to. Befrdfght is completely in mime - Brown is a clown who trained at École Philippe Gaulier. He treads the line of inappropriate and gets off scot-free. Befrdfght just won the 2012 MICF Barry Award (Best Show) and the Foster's Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Award. The good doctor is back in Australia; prepare yourself for a hug ('cause you'll get one).

Check out Dr Brown's TV Show Episode 1: First Outing Comedy Blaps

Tuesday 2 October to Thursday 4, Tuxedo Cat; Friday 5 and Saturday 6,  Lithuanian Club

DasSHOKU SHAKE! (cabaret)

The fourth work in the DasSHOKU repertoire series, created and performed by Butoh Punkess Yumi Umiumare with Theatre Gumbo. It's a cross-cultural emo cabaret shake-up performed in one of Melbourne's quaintest underground cabaret venues, Fortyfivedownstairs (anyone who saw Glory Box will vouch for this).

Thursday 27 September to Sunday 7 October, Fortyfivedownstairs

Elbow Room: As We Mean To Go On (performance)
A world premiere of the companion piece to Elbow Room's multi-award-winning After All This (Best Performance Melbourne Fringe 2011 and Best Independent Director for Marcel Dorney & Ensemble 2011 Green Room Awards). After All This just wrapped up a season at Brisbane Festival.  Both works are part of a larger ongoing project, Now More Than Ever, which examines the role of religious feeling and behaviour in a secular and scientific age.

Friday 28 September to Saturday 13 October, Fringe Hub – The Warehouse

Tommy Bradson's The Men My Mother Loved (cabaret)
At last year's Fringe Festival Tommy Bradson not only won the Best Cabaret award for Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem, he also made this writer believe in the power of lycra and cabaret (and Fringe for making shows like this possible). This new show is also the return collaboration of Bradson and composer/accompanier John Thorn.

A clip from Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem :

Sunday 20 September to Friday 5 October, The Lithuanian Club

The Beast (performance)
The follow-up solo show for Melbournian Stuart Bowden, The Beast - just finishing up a season at the Brisbane Festival - is a highly anticipated Fringe offering. This Fringe Bowden will also reprise his role as the singing tiger in his collaboration with the earlier mentioned comedian Dr Brown, in their kids' show Dr Brown Brown Brown Brown And His Singing Tiger, on at The Arts Centre. In his last five festivals Bowden's work has been nominated for 12 awards and has won five.

Monday 1 October to Sunday 7 October, Tuxedo Cat

The Séance
Audiences will attempt to make contact with the ghost of a dead celebrity. No Show (Bridget Balodis and Mark Pritchard) brought us Next Wave's Shotgun Wedding and in The Séance, another site specific piece, audiences can only be up to ten people. Pritchard is being mentored by Ian Pidd through Melbourne Fringe's Outside Eye program, and the project has been made as part of their Tour Ready Initiative.

Wednesday 3 October to Saturday 13 October, meet at North Melbourne Town Hall Steps.

Choir Girl (performance)
Sarah Collins and theatre company Attic Erratic are collaborating for Choir Girl. This is the first play Collins has written since Donna & Damo: An Asexual Love Story. Directed by Celeste Cody, it features a 14-strong choir.

Friday 28 September to Saturday 13 October, The Lithuanian Club

Ellipsis (dance)
A unique choreographic experience created and performed by Gareth Hart. The piece was recently nominated for Best Dance at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe. Equipped with wireless headphones, you are invited to an intimate experience, where pre-recorded and live sounds meld into an aural cocoon.

Running Saturday 6 September to Saturday 13 October, North Melbourne Town Hall

The Unspoken Word Is Joe (performance)
A new play by Zoey Dawson, directed by half of Sisters Grimm, Declan Greene, and presented by MKA: Theatre Of New Writing. This is a powerhouse group of creatives.

“A very life-affirming dramatic play. Well, it's about her ex-boyfriend. So, you know, it's definitely got that sad, sentimental bit to it” is how Dawson describes it.

Check out the trailer:

Thursday 4 October to Sunday 14 October, La Mama Theatre