Melbourne in September sees many passionate folk crowing together to watch something they love. Yes, September 27 is the AFL final, but it’s also the opening weekend of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Anne-Marie Peard likes the Crows, so she had time to research the festival program for us.

Melbourne loves its arts as much as its sport. Last year over 200 000 people attended the Melbourne Fringe Festival – that’s twice the capacity of the MCG.

This year’s Fringe Festival runs from 24 September to 12 October. With nearly 300 events, involving around 3000 artists, it’s Victoria’s largest annual showcase of independent arts, with a program encompassing theatre, cabaret, circus, comedy, dance, music, puppetry and visual art.

Creative Producer Emily Sexton is guiding her first Fringe. She describes the 2008 program as “diverse, cunning and ambitious”, and is “very excited about…projects and people that will reinvent your relationship with our city.”

What does all of that mean? Isn’t the Fringe just some arty-farty party for naked, deconstructed fire twirlers?

OK, sometimes it is, but there’s a lot more to discover.

What is a Fringe Festival?

Fringes are unofficially attached to a major arts festival and tend to feature the more unusual or experimental art forms. In Melbourne, the Fringe starts two weeks before the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the programs overlap for a few days.

How Do They Select the Program?

They don’t. Anyone can be in the Fringe festival.

Major arts festival programs, like the Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney festivals, are selected by an artistic director and the artists are paid. Fringes are open access, meaning there is no selection criteria. Professionals and first-timers are treated the same. If you have something that you want to show to an audience, you can be in the Fringe.

You do have to pay a registration fee ($200-$280), which gets you a spot in the program guide and advice from the Fringe staff about necessities like public liability insurance and risk management. The only income Fringe artists receive is from ticket sales.

For the audiences, this style of open program ensures that you never know what is going to turn up each year. This year’s program theatre program alone ranges from a telling of Shakespeare’s Cymberline to Monkey Magic (yes, that’s the old TV show) -  Live on Stage!

Is it any good?

The joy of an open program is that it encourages exploration and risk -  for the artists and the audience. It is risky seeing untried shows, but over the years I’ve seen some of the most outstanding and some of the most atrocious art at Fringes

One risky performance at this year’s festival is Zoetrope from Interior Theatre. Creator Telia Nevile describes it as “an experiment in structure and audience dynamic”.  Each performance only lasts for 10 minutes, but it will be a very intimate, or possibly intimidating, experience for the audience, as they stand in the centre of a fenced in space and watch as “life” is performed around them.

Neville says, “The great thing about Fringe is that everybody is experimenting and taking risks.  Artists are taking risks with form, structure and method, pushing themselves to try new things, and audiences are taking a punt on shows they know very little about.  It’s a fantastic atmosphere of potential and discovery.”

Ultimately, Fringes let us see the work that artists really want to make.

How to decide what to see?

Read the guide

Look out for a bright yellow magazine in cafes or go to www.melbournefringe.com.au.

The guide can be daunting and full of false promises.  Each act is given a mere 50 words to convince you to part with your money. A show may have an “award winning director”, but the award may be her “good attendance” certificate from grade four.

Read the blurbs thoroughly or simply flick though and chose the best picture or title you find. Why not judge a show by its cover? You might strike gold. (Or fools gold.)

Read reviews

Not all reviewers agree and not all shows are reviewed, but they will give you a starting point. Reviews appear in the daily papers, but the more detailed (and controversial) opinions can be found at online sites and theatre blogs.

To get started, check out these review sites:

TheAge.com.au – As a sponsor of the Fringe, The Age reviews most shows, so is good starting place.

buzzcuts.com.au – Fresh opinions from emerging and young writers.

aussietheatre.com – They don’t review every show, but gives some honest opinion. (I review on this site).

australianstage.com.au- Selects what it reviews, but offers detailed reviews by knowledgeable writers.

artshub.com.au – It’s the site the industry reads.

Also remember that reviews are just the opinion of one person. One show that has already received mixed reviews is Eagle’s Nest Theatre’s An Actor Prepares. It has been described as “stunning: simple and heartbreaking”, “devastatingly effective” and “so bad it could almost become a cult”. Taste is ultimately subjective, so it’s sometimes best to make up your own mind.

Head to the hub

The official Fringe Hub is around the North Melbourne Town Hall. There are plenty of shows and venues, so just turn up and buy a ticket to whatever is about to start.

Trust the audiences

A sign of a good show is ticket sales.  If you’re buying from the Fringe Box Office (in Federation Square or on the phone), ask what is popular.

Have a drink

Head to the Fringe Club at North Melbourne Town Hall. There will be plenty of punters willing to tell you what’s good.

Be a tightarse

With 97 free events, you can enjoy the Fringe without spending a cent. The free program includes performances in Federation Square, events at Fringe Club six nights a week and 36 visual arts exhibitions.

There are also two-for-one deals for most shows on 24 September and 4 October.

Risky Picks

Choosing what you see at a Fringe is always going to be a risk. But that’s what Fringe is all about.

Most shows are less than the cost of a movie and you might see something that speaks to your heart, makes you cry or leaves you smiling all night. Or you may see the worst piece of theatre imaginable, which will give you something to laugh at. It has to be better than sitting at home watching TV and you will have given an artist some well-earned beer money.

If you like a bit of risk, these are some performances, events and experiences from artists who are experimenting with style, place, form, content and (occasionally) taste.

Information about all these shows and more  is available at www.melbournefringe.com.au

Theatre

MelBorn08:  PlaySpotting – Melbourne Writers Theatre
Melbourne Writers Theatre annual hit 10-minute play festival.

Nothing Extraordinary Ever Happens in Toowoomba. (Ever)
Kevin-John is home schooled, living in Toowoomba and convinced that life will never get better. As a bonus, each member of the audience will be given an “exquisite” piece of macaroni jewellery!

Visual Arts

TOTEM – curated by Sayraphim Lothian
A collection of over 100 hand-made dolls created by artists to “reflect how they truly feel themselves to be”.

Safari Team presents the Craft Exchange Salon
There’s still plenty of time to exhibit your own work in this one night only exhibition and party. The concept is simple – you email them (craftexchange@safariteam.org) or sign up at the Fringe hub. They send you something in the post; you make art out of it, send it back and are part of the exhibition!

Comedy

Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams – Sammy J and Heath McIvor
Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe and a season at London’s West End, this Melbourne duo return with their “cult adult-comedy-musical-puppetry” show.

Eric – Vicious Fish Theatre
Some of Melbourne’s best writers have contributed pieces for this sketch comedy. The twist is that it’s being performed by one person.

Dance

The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest – Rawcus Theatre Company and Restless Dance Company.
Australia’s leading disability performance companies have collaborated to create a “bold, blackly         funny, heartbreaking and highly theatrical” performance.

Dance-A-Thon 6000 – The Town Bikes

This is a chance to grab your go go boots or squeeze into your favourite unitard, as the Town Bikes      need help for their dance-based record breaking experiment. Or you can just watch, but where’s the fun in that!

Burlesque and cabaret

The Undressing Room – Imogen Kelly
Imogen was the hit of the Fringe launch. She describes her show as “a Mexican stand off between performance art and burlesque” and aims to show her naked self to one million people and retire, disgracefully!

Two Little Spiels: A Double Bill – Bron Batten, Karina Smith and Eva Johansen
A pair of handcrafted and intimate theatrical gems combining dance, text, music, comedy and puppetry.

Site specific

Mysteries of the Convent ‘08 – Peepshow Inc
Puppets, ghosts and stories will appear out of the very walls on this nighttime tour of the historical Abbotsford Convent.

Deceased Estate – Open Garden for Interactive Inspection – Roundangle
The venue is a 1930s Brunswick bungalow about to go under the auctioneers hammer. Described as “a performance that guides you, blindfolds and brushes up against you”.

Just plain wrong (or don’t take nanna)

Hitlerhoff – Tom Doig
What can you say about a show that fuses David Hasselhoff and Adolf Hitler? The creators say “Two wrongs don’t make a Reich”, but it may turn out to be a hit.

Where you been hidin’ Hettie Rae? – Sissies and Sluts Theatre Group
This show was described to me as something that “will make you laugh and puke simultaneously.” This company do their best to offend everyone.

Community

I’m Not Drowing, I’m Learning to Swim
Personal stories and performances created by the Melbourne Rainbow Band, Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Youth Chorus and Y-GLAM Performing Arts Project.

Free

The Last Tuesday Club
After only five months, the “Club” is on its way to becoming a Melbourne institution. They don’t know what’s going to happen, but there will be performances by some of Melbourne’s most original, bizarre and outrageous artists. Or just enjoy the Craffle (crap raffle).

Team Loko’s Human Graffiti
Head to Federation Square as the sun goes down and look up. The team promise “electrifying feats of skill, stunts and stupidity”.

The Age Melbourne Fringe Festival 2008 runs from 24 September to 12 October

Information about all of these shows is available at www.melbournefringe.com.au and go to the alphabetical listing.