Overview
A great fringe festival thrives on surprises. It showcases anything and everything, and it loves inducing whiplash when people peruse its program. RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under 2022 winner Spankie Jackzon, then reimagined Radiohead songs, then a recreation of Titanic? Absurdist Polish theatre, then a dance piece about love, then a game with the grim reaper? That's the clash of shows you'll find on the 2023 Sydney Fringe Festival lineup.
This year's fest takes place from Friday, September 1–Saturday, September 30, and started dropping highlights back in June. From that initial reveal, the musical-comedy version of The Marvellous Elephant Man the Musical, Ancient Greece-set comedy GODZ and the all-ages-friendly CIRCUS — The Show were already on the lineup. The full program doesn't hit till early August, either, but Sydneysiders have a few more performances to now look forward to.
Jackzon is bringing solo show Just the Tip to Sydney Fringe, playing Darling Quarter's new Hello Darling tent with a combination of drag, music and comedy. Also at the same venue: fellow Drag Race alum Beverly Kills, Timberlina and Friends: A Drag Cabaret and the burlesque variety stylings of Decadence and Debauchery.
Thom Yorke fans will want to check out Radiohead Uncovered: How to Disappear Completely. Here, audiences will be treated to 24 original choral and instrumental arrangements featuring 12 voices, as well as computer-generated imagery, live camera projections and 13 short films. Each of the latter has been crafted by local and international filmmakers especially for this show — all worshipping the English band.
For the second year in a row, Sydney Fringe will also pay comic tribute to the movie that got Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' stuck in everyone's heads forever. Yes, that means that Titanic is sailing into this year's fest again — Titanic: The Movie, The Play, to be exact, this time into the Spiegeltent Festival Garden at the EQ Showring in Moore Park. If you missed it last year, it recreates the tragic romance of Kate and Leo as two lovestruck ship-dwellers attempting to overcome their different backgrounds, ignoring any rules about getting hot and steamy in someone else's car, and trying to avoid a pesky iceberg. And, you're meant to laugh along.
Even now before the entire program drops, the list goes on, with The Mother hailing from Warsaw's Kropka Theatre, then Love/Love/Love/Love/Love featuring New Zealander Tessa Redman and Lilies and Dust getting teams sleuthing in a pop-up puzzle room to save a dead cat's soul.
Or, there's also a trio of Sydney theatre pieces in Blacklisted, Betty Is a Butcher and Plenty of Fish in the Sea — the first about borders and belonging, the second a black comedy and the third pondering looking for romance.
Throw in US play Monsters of the American Cinema, ABBA-themed queer bingo and reflections on being raised in a cult, and Sydney Fringe 2023 won't be lacking in vastly dissimilar events for audiences to choose from.
Sydney Fringe Festival 2023 will take place from Friday, September 1–Saturday, September 30, with the event's full program set to be announced in the coming months. For further information in the interim, head to the fest's website.