Wed 4 Sep 2019

Artistic Director of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (MFF), Simon Abrahams, joins Annika for State of the Art this morning to chat about this year's tantalising line-up.

Melbourne Fringe Festival returns in 2019 from September 12 to 29 with over 455 boundary-pushing events from 2,718 participating artists across 140 venues, including the exciting new home of the Fringe Hub, Trades Hall. 

This year Melbourne Fringe is In Search of the Truth. Cause Collective (US) invites its participants to step inside a giant inflatable speech bubble/photobooth confessional and take a seat in front of the camera’s curious eye and respond to the prompt: “The truth is...” The participants’ truths will be collated into a public exhibition at Chapel off Chapel, projecting a diverse portrait of people within the community and across the world.

Comedy highlights include Mormon Girl: the hilarious, bizarre and beautiful coming of age story of Jess, the eldest daughter of a rural Mormon family who taught her that her body was off limits. Born with a disability and no uterus, Jess takes off on a solo journey of self-discovery, learning all the things her doctors, priests and parents never thought to tell her.

Melbourne Fringe was established in 1982 as an annual open access festival that champions cultural democracy and supports anyone to participate in the arts. Fringe programs include the annual design exhibition Fringe Furniture, participatory public art commissions, children’s programs as well as its First Nations program Deadly Fringe, disability and Deaf arts programs, mentorships, workshops, residencies, forums, awards and touring support.

Tune in to The Breakfast Spread from 8.30am Wednesday September 4 to hear Artistic Director Simon Abrahams chatting about the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and every Wednesday to find out all the latest Arts news of Melbourne.