In partnership with the Sydney Fringe Festival, ArtsHub has been sharing some of the best reviews to come through the festival’s Reviewer Lab.
The lab supports emerging arts writers and critics, providing space for new voices and perspectives. Now, we bring you three reviews of shows heading south for Melbourne Fringe.
Sydney Fringe Reviewer Lab – quick links
Freidah Will See You Now
Reviewed by Scarlett Potter
Darkness. There is nothing but black and cold. From the depth of the Qtopia loading dock you can hear skittering, like the movements of a particularly sharp-clawed mouse. A grunt. Two grunts. The splashing of water before – pink! A river of colour illuminating the stage and our demise.
Unburied and under-financed, the audience starts the show as souls doomed to walk the shore of Hell’s river Styx for eternity. That is, until the titular Freidah appears promising safe passage. Probably. Eventually? Well, whenever our boat of the damned is set to arrive, we have no choice but to wait.
So begins Freidah Will See You Now, the one-woman clown show by Naarm performer Caitlin Duff. Freidah delivers a truly hilarious evening with a performance that captures the very essence of Sydney’s weird and wonderful Fringe. Part improv, part crowd work and wholly captivating, Duff is a comedy dynamo creating a truly original clown persona ready to spookify your evening … Freidah, who aside from having an unmistakable penchant for comedic retorts, is captivating for the pure artistry on display.
Duff performs physicality with an impressive strength and grace that brings this persona into vibrant clarity. Transforming herself through mannerism into an otherworldly figure. Freidah is certainly larger than life but, there is a groundedness to the performance that speaks to Duff’s talents beyond nonsense slapstick.
Freidah Will See You Now played at Qtopia Sydney as part of Sydney Fringe, and is now at Melbourne Fringe, showing at the Festival Hub Trades Hall until 18 October. Read Scarlet Potter’s full review on the Sydney Fringe Feed.
Jeromaia Detto: Giuseppe’s Love Quest
Reviewed by Jaynie Ng
What is love? Most of the time, it’s not something we actively contemplate. It’s something we tend to experience emotionally, not logically. Turns out, when asked, we are pretty terrible at describing it beyond the word ‘warm’. In Giuseppe’s Love Quest, Jeromaia Detto turns this deceptively simple question into a chaotic exploration of romance.
In this one-man character comedy, audience participation is central as Detto brings us along Giuseppe’s journey. We are quized about familiar romantic experiences and feelings, with our myriad responses … eventually culminating in Giuseppe’s first date. By asking us what intimate moments like a hug or a kiss feel like, we are not just spectators. We become collaborators and confidants to Giuseppe.
Detto invites us to reflect and share our understanding of romance – not just within the confines of the show, but long after, as these seemingly straightforward questions linger. Through its playful audience exchanges, joyful narrative and infectious energy, Giuseppe’s Love Quest brings us a warmth that can feel missing in the search for it. In Giuseppe’s eyes, it feels so uncomplicated and jubilant. The show’s real joy is not about finally finding love. Giuseppe’s Love Quest succeeds as a wonderful reminder of the joy, simplicity and hope that journey can be.
Jeromaia Detto: Giuseppe’s Love Quest played at Erskineville Town Hall as part of Sydney Fringe and now travels to the Festival Hub Trades Hall from 14 to 18 October as part of Melbourne Fringe. Read Jaynie Ng’s full review on the Sydney Fringe Feed.
Dial M For Mushrooms
Reviewed by Grace Davidson-Lynch
Is it okay to poke fun at the infamous Erin Patterson murder case, which gripped the nation in 2023 and became an international true crime spectacle? The jury is still out on that one. But the ethics of true crime is not the debate at the centre of George Glass’s comedy cabaret spectacular – instead, they tell the tale of a trio of jurors attempting to understand the mind of a murderer, while losing their own in the process.
A word of warning: this show, starring Nic Conway, Pud Hamilton, and Chris Nenov, is not really about the trial of Erin Patterson, and it will not hold your hand when it comes to the mundane details of that case. If Nagi Maehashi’s New York Times-bestselling cookbook RecipeTin Eats: Dinner and the phrase ‘tan coloured plate’ mean nothing to you, there is a chance a lot of this material will fly over your head. But then again, this mile-a-minute musical bonanza is just as likely to bewilder you anyway, with its endless tangents, absurd prop comedy, and songs about what not to wear during a gastrointestinal emergency.
George Glass’s musical numbers carry the work, but it’s the trio’s wacky brand of humour that makes this a totally unique cabaret experience … While there’s nothing funny about killing your estranged family with poisonous mushrooms, there is something funny about what a crime like this can do to the people caught up in the madness. Whether right or wrong, George Glass has transformed a morbid media spectacle into a morbid and deeply funny comedy spectacle that is well worth a watch.
Dial M for Mushrooms played at Erskineville Town Hall as part of Sydney Fringe and is now at Melbourne’s Festival Hub Trades Hall to 11 October as part of Melbourne Fringe. Read Grace Davidson-Lynch’s full review on the Sydney Fringe Feed.
