Melbourne Fringe Opening Night

Having forced myself to stay awake all day, and rather over-caffeinated by the time night fell, I headed off to the North Melbourne Town Hall on Friday evening, respendent in a new outfit I'd partially purchased earlier that afternoon: an ornate, white 1930's dinner shirt complete with ebony tiepin and cufflinks, and a luxurious jacket of dark red velvet with black lapels. Coupled with jeans and a pair of black Converse sneakers, I projected (I hope!) just the right mix of glamour and grunge as befits the opening night of Melbourne Fringe.

The evening began with a sponsors' meet and greet session in the festival club, which this year is situated in the main ballroom of the North Melbourne Town Hall. Schmoozing is something I can only do when I'm in the right mindset: jetlag and exhaustion made it a little more tricky than I could have wished for last night...

Thanks to the addition of a new Fringe venue this year just down Errol Street from the Town Hall, the Lithuanian Club, we've freed up the NMTH's main ballroom, which in previous years has been Fringe's largest capacity theatre. Consequently the festival club looked fantastic: kudos to all the Fringe staff for a great team effort in pulling this off. Cabaret style seating, subdued lighting, a huuuuuge mirror ball, and some fantastic entertainment: it all came together last night, and consequently was crowded with people who drank and danced til late, creating a fantastic vibe and atmosphere which will hopefully carry over into most other nights at the festival.

My date for the evening was the lovely Ms Lisa Greenaway, my sometime spoken word partner and collaborator, who had also filled in as the presenter of 'Smartarts' for me for the past month while I was away. Lisa's only recently returned to Melbourne after a long stint in NSW, and it was fantasic to have her back and at my side last night.

The show we saw was the superb Basic Training, written and performed by visiting American artist Kahlil Ashanti, which sees him play 23 characters over 75 minutes in a story which explores his search for his biological father and his time in the US Air Force. Ashanti effortlessly switched personalities, and from broad physical humour to genuine pathos, in the blink of an eye, using voice, gesture and posture to differentiate his various characters as the show progressed. It was engaging, clever and moving, and highly recommended: the booking details and performance dates can be found here.

Thereafter Lisa and I strolled back downstairs to the festival club, where we enjoyed a range of artists showcasing some of the festival's other artists (although sadly headlining act Eddie Perfect had to withdraw at the last minute due to illness), and a few drinks. Eventually, about midnight, my brain began to shut down and I called it a night - not bad going considering by that stage I'd been awake for almost 48 hours!

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It's now Saturday afternoon, and I'm listening to the alt-country show Twang on 3RRR as I write this.

In just a moment I'm off to see Fringe Furniture at the Melbourne Museum, and then at 5.30 I'll be taking in a performance by physical troupe Dislocate at another Fringe-produced event, the collaborative Human Momentum at Federation Square. I'll have to battle footy crowds at that time of day I suspect, as the AFL Grand Final is on this afternoon. I'm barracking for Sydney. Carn the Swans!