The best (and the weirdest) of the Fringe Festival so far

Five performers from First Nations-led company Na Djinang Circus navigate the crowd while delivering death-defying circus stunts in the middle of Fed Square.

We turn back in time to a pre-colonial era as dramatic, otherworldly music plays in the background. The troupe roves through the crowd as if hunting, then gathers on a platform. The intimate audience of onlookers grows once the public realise that something is afoot.

The choreography is dynamic, as the artists impressively run and tumble through people and across the stairs, doing lifts and climbing on one another. Embedding Indigenous knowledge in contemporary movements, performers emulate animals and cultural practices.

They cleverly introduce props – a ladder and a trolley – carrying and manoeuvring them across the flat and cobbled surfaces of the square. They mount the ladder, balancing on its rungs like a tightrope or handstand-style, then lay it on the ground like train tracks to ride the trolley over it, as if it’s a raft sailing along the Yarra River.

Surprising and ever-moving, this place-based show is an exhilarating watch. ★★★★★ Reviewed by Vyshnavee Wijekumar

CABARET Darby James | Little Squirt Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute, until October 24

In the depths of Melbourne’s lockdowns in 2021, Darby James clicked on a Facebook ad for sperm donation. The UK-born musical comedian premiered his one-man cabaret based on the experience at Melbourne Fringe 2023 as Spunk Daddy , and this week performed its 100th show at the same festival. Little Squirt is distinctly contemporary, wrestling with some of modern life’s heaviest dilemmas. Dressed as a seaman (say it out loud), James ponders the ethics of having biological children as a cis gay man, and what it means to have a legacy. The performer is a master of tone, somehow striking a perfect balance between ejaculation jokes and moving monologues, all with his tightly controlled vocals. The audience responds in kind, from raucous laughter to stunned silence. Tech issues on opening night mean that James is unplugged, adding an extra layer of intimacy to this already deeply intimate and thoughtful show. ★★★★★ Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

This is Fringe at its purest – and this show comes with more content warnings than a film by Larry Clark. SLUGS was nominated for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, and rightly so. It’s delirious mayhem from Canadian artists S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger.

How often do you see the genitalia (some accompanied with googly eyes) of both performers, and see them threatening an audience member at gun-point, then offering another a very raunchy sex service that can’t be printed in these pages? Free candy is also extended to the crowd, so it’s not all R18+ (but it is 99 per cent of the time). There’s deliberately poorly performed puppetry (shout-out to a terribly voiced Joni Mitchell), and the two cosplaying as a horse. Essentially, it’s Play School on crack with a decent dollop of existential doom and dread woven in.

If you’re a fan of comedic chaos with the capability of warping your mind, then I couldn’t recommend it more highly.