Your guide to a literary Fringe Festival

đź“·: Trentino Priori

Festival time is upon us! With Adelaide Fringe Festival opening this week, the city is brimming with the excitement of possibility. New ideas and collaborations are being sparked as artists from across the country and world head to Adelaide.

It can be overwhelming when you want to see and do everything – with that in mind we’ve created a literary guide to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, with some of the events featuring authors, and poets, both local and visiting, and book-themed events in this year’s lineup. Enjoy!

Authors

An Evening with the Vegetarian Librarian
After selling-out her five star show in 2019, Writers SA member Tracy Crisp once again brings her unique blend of poignancy and humour to Fringe. A mostly true, slightly made-up tale of thwarted ambition, underachievement, and a funeral in a library. A meditation on reading and an ode to life before the device.

Train Lord
Award-winning author Oliver Mol’s debut is a true story about a 10-month migraine, his recovery in Brisbane and job on the railway when he couldn’t do anything else: a story of hope, laughter, pain, relationships, drugs, failed orgies, mothers, fathers and love.

Audio Book Live
Relax with a glass of wine under the stars in the garden while listening to some of Adelaide’s favourite actors reading a selection of short stories from award winning director Eddy Knight’s forthcoming book ‘A Short Walk to the Sea’.

Rosie Waterland: Kid Chameleon
Award-winning podcaster, author & comedian Rosie has sold out theatres and enraptured audiences across the country with her trademark frank, funny honesty on topics from awkward sex to body image and mental health.

Poetry-related

Slowly But Surely
The cabaret love child of poet Gemma Rose Marie Thorne, with line up of entirely queer womxn and nonbinary artists, featuring poetry, music, and dance.

Poetry up the Creek
A free, live poetry performance evening at Tea Tree Gully. Be transported by the witty, impassioned and streetwise words crafted by SA poets of all ages, while relaxing on the grass under the trees. BYO picnic.

Outside Light
On the back of a series of successful screenings in Europe, North America and Austrian television, ‘Outside Light’ is back in Adelaide for a third season. Join Adelaide Poet & Film-maker Mark Niehus for an intimate outdoor laneway screening of a collection of his independent poetry films.

Greg Byron #StandUpPoet
Comedy meets poetry with verses inspired by modern life, pop culture and social commentary.

Well-Versed
An inclusive poetry project on PBA-FM 89.7. They record, broadcast and celebrate writers of SA, giving the opportunity for remote poets to e included, with poetry read by the writers on the air.

The Good Word – Spoken
A magical evening of poetic performance art under the stars in Port Adelaide.

Literary-themed

Promise and Promiscuity: A New Musical by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton
New Zealander Penny Ashton tackles Jane Austen’s characters with song, dance & appalling cross-stitching, in an award-winning solo show.

Bond: an Unauthorized Parody
007 meets his greatest arch-villain yet: author Ian Fleming himself, in this comedy adventure exploding every cliché in the book.

Dead Men Talking
Henry Lawson (Max Cullen) and ‘Banjo’ Paterson (Warren Fahey) catch up in the Leviticus Bar & Grill, Heaven’s Gate, to discuss literary legacies and changed circumstances. They sing, recite and strip each other’s personality bare.

Grace Notes: Grace O’Malley, Irish rebel, pirate queen
Be amazed at the story of Grace O’Malley (Grainne Mhaol), a powerful seafaring chieftain in 16th-century Ireland who commanded 200 men at sea, and met with Queen Elizabeth I, yet was written out of history books. Irish storyteller Jennifer Liston brings this extraordinary woman to life through original poems, songs and music.

Sanaa Storytelling
Creatives from Australia and Africa join forces for an evening of theatre, poetry and dance. Hosted among the work of over 12 visual artists from across Africa.

Words and Music For Iris
A program of songs mentioned in Iris Murdoch’s novels – from Shakespeare songs to Mozart arias, from folk songs to jazz standards – with associated readings from favourite novels like ‘The Sea, the Sea’, ‘The Philosopher’s Pupil’, ‘The Bell’ and more.

Being Dead (Don Quixote)
A dangerous quest of literary theft, build-your-own identity and post-anarchy. A moving and sensational experience of queer thinking, failed heroism and triumphant femininity as queer Femme Kerith Manderson-Galvin rips off the world’s first modern novel, Barbie, and the original rip-off artist Kathy Acker et al. in a signature work that has alienated and captivated audiences across Australia.

Pinter at the Pub
After the success in 2019 with “Chekhov at the Pub”, Black Cat theatre continue the literary pub theme as they examine language of Pinter in a new pub show.

The Ides of March
When William Shakespeare travels back in time to ancient Rome to research his newest play he unwittingly finds himself a prime suspect in the murder of Julius Caesar…a fast and furious noir comedy awaits.

 


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