Edinburgh’s Underground Hit About Nothing Slithers Into Melbourne Fringe

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The critically acclaimed SLUGS, a breakout hit of the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe from award-winning performance and comedy duo CREEPY BOYS, is coming to Melbourne. Created and first presented during Melbourne’s lockdown, the boys are back to perform the show live and in person at the Meat Market for Melbourne Fringe 2026.

“We CAN NOT express how excited we are to come back to Australia. We spent a year in Melbourne during the initial COVID-19 lockdown, and have such intense, albeit odd, memories of that year,” said the Creepy Boys. “Melbourne is really where we became not just two people dating, but partners, both in life and in art. We’ve said for years, it is our favourite city in the world and we can’t wait to be back.”

Part electro-punk concert, part play, part clown show, and part basement puppet nightmare, SLUGS is a technicolour acid trip. Created by real-life partners S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger, it features puppet Joni Mitchell, a two-person horse and just about every body part they have. At its heart, SLUGS is two people trying to have a good time while the world burns. For sixty minutes, at least, we are free.

Nominated for Best Show at the 2025 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, SLUGS became an underground hit and earned universal praise with The Guardian calling it “brilliantly smart and beautifully stupid”. Bringing SLUGS to Melbourne has particular significance for the pair, who spent a year living here during the first COVID-19 lockdown, first in Brunswick and later in a “little apartment cube in the sky” in Moonee Ponds. It was an unusual introduction to the city, but one that transformed both their personal and creative lives. This time, thankfully, they get to experience Melbourne with an audience in the room. That relationship between performer and audience sits at the heart of SLUGS, a show designed to exist completely and unapologetically live.

Together as CREEPY BOYS, and through their respective solo works, Grummett and Kruger have toured Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, appearing at Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, Latitude Festival, SummerWorks, PuSh Festival, Prague Quadrennial, Midsumma Festival, Adelaide Fringe and Fringe World. Their work has also been featured on BBC Radio 4.

Now, after delivering one of Edinburgh’s most talked-about shows, CREEPY BOYS are coming home, creatively at least, to Melbourne. Produced by SKINT and presented for Melbourne Fringe Festival, CREEPY BOYS will present SLUGS at the Meat Market from 1 – 17 October at the Stables at The Meat Market. Tickets on sale now.

Expect music. Expect puppets. Expect clowning. Expect body parts. Just don’t expect them to tell you what SLUGS is about.

SLUGS
Created and performed by: CREEPY BOYS – S.E. Grummett & Sam Kruger
Presented by: Melbourne Fringe
Produced by: SKINT

PRAISE FOR CREEPY BOYS
Best Show Nominee – Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025
“The underground hit of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe” – The Telegraph
★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★ The Scotsman
★★★★ Chortle
★★★★★ ToDoList
★★★★★ Broadway Baby
★★★★ Financial Times
★★★★ The List
★★★★ The Skinny
★★★★ FestMag
★★★★★ NorthWestEnd UK
★★★★★ Get the Chance UK
★★★★ ‘A gleefully transgressive underground discovery’ – Financial Times

WINNER – Bragi Award, Summerhall Arts (Creepy Boys: SLUGS)
WINNER – Best Theatre at Adelaide Fringe (Something in the Water – S.E. Grummett)
WINNER – Just for Laughs Comedy Award (Fool Muun Komming! etc. etc. – Sam Kruger)

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Sessions On The Pier With Sydney Chamber Choir: Time & Tide

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Now in its 3rd edition, Sydney Chamber Choir’s much-loved concert series fusing classical, jazz and popular song returns – this time welcoming Spring & celebrating the beauty of the changing seasons.

Presented in the intimate surrounds of The Neilson at Walsh Bay on Pier 2/3 by the harbour, this program invites audiences to experience the year’s cycle through music of warmth, reflection & joy.

Led by Sam Allchurch as well as Naomi Crellin and Nick Begbie (from the award-winning a cappella ensemble The Idea of North), the Choir joins forces with a superb jazz trio to explore the shifting moods of nature and time.

Benjamin Britten’s radiant The Succession of the Four Sweet Months and Joe Twist’s On the Night Train capture the poetry of the natural world in timeless choral writing. These are paired with imaginative arrangements of beloved favourites, including the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun, the Beach Boys’ Their Hearts Were Full of Spring, Gershwin’s Summertime from Porgy and Bess, and the jazz classic Autumn Leaves, made famous by Nat King Cole.

Blending elegance, swing and lyrical beauty, Time & Tide offers a captivating evening where genres meet, voices shimmer, and the turning of the year is celebrated in music of light, colour and grace.

Artistic director and conductor Sam Allchurch said the choir had hugely enjoyed bringing audience a new way of experiencing the Sydney Chamber Choir in jazz-infused programs brought together by the ‘incomparable’ Naomi Crellin.

“Time and Tide is our latest instalment, exploring the different seasons of our lives in the intimate atmosphere of the Nielson on Pier 2/3. Naomi has arranged some of the best jazz classics with witty and beautiful twists which sit alongside some moments of a cappella stillness.”

Naomi Crellin added: “This program is close to my heart as it marries my first love of classical choral harmony with my evolution into the lush expression of jazz harmony. The repertoire demands a deeper connection to lyric and intent, and gives the choir the freedom to express itself on a different level. Having the opportunity to direct this fine ensemble and be trusted to guide them outside their comfort zone is a great privilege.”

Artists
Sydney Chamber Choir | Sam Allchurch, Conductor | Naomi Crellin Co-Director | Nick Begbie Co-Director | Kevin Hunt Jazz Trio

Program includes
Benjamin Britten: The Succession of the Four Sweet Months
Dan Forrest: Good Night, Dear Heart
George Gershwin: Summertime
Dave Grusin/Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman (arr. Crellin): When Summer Turns to Snow
George Harrison (arr. Crellin): Here Comes the Sun
Joseph Kosma/Johnny Mercer (arr. Connolly and Crellin): Autumn Leaves
Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein: It Might as Well Be Spring
Sigmund Romberg/Oscar Hammerstein (arr. Crellin): Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise
Bobby Troup: Their Hearts Were Full of Spring
Joe Twist: On the Night Train
Tommy Wolf/Fran Landesman (arr. Crellin): Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most

Sydney Chamber Choir: Sessions on the Pier – Time & Tide
Sat 19 Sept 5pm & 8pm at The Neilson, ACO on the Pier, Pier 2/3 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay
Tickets: $30-$110 | Bookings: www.sydneychamberchoir.org.au

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Brian Vriends Co-Writes Powerful New Australian Play 12 Angry Actors

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Australian screen and stage favourite Brian Vriends (All Saints, Wentworth, Underbelly, Sydney Theatre Company) has joined forces with award-winning criminal defence lawyer, actor and producer Celine Khoury to create 12 Angry Actors, a gripping new Australian play that confronts one of society’s most challenging questions: when someone has served their sentence, have they truly paid their debt to society?

Developed over seven years, 12 Angry Actors thrusts audiences into an explosive rehearsal room where twelve performers become embroiled in a fierce debate over whether a fellow cast member with a criminal past deserves a second chance.

As rehearsals unravel, so too do the lives of those on stage. Personal histories, hidden prejudices and long-buried trauma collide, forcing each character and, ultimately, the audience to confront their own beliefs about justice, redemption and forgiveness. Rather than offering easy answers, 12 Angry Actors asks where punishment ends, whether rehabilitation is truly possible, and if society is ever willing to forgive.

For Brian Vriends, the script’s emotional complexity was impossible to ignore.

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“What drew me to 12 Angry Actors is that it refuses to offer simple answers. It asks audiences to wrestle with difficult questions about justice, redemption and whether we really believe people deserve a second chance. Those are conversations worth having. Twelve Angry Actors is one of those rare stories that stays with you long after it’s over. I’m incredibly excited to help bring this powerful, thought-provoking story to the stage and can’t wait for audiences to experience it.”

Co-writer and producer Celine Khoury says the production is designed to challenge audiences rather than provide easy answers.

“As a criminal defence lawyer, I’ve spent my career representing people at the worst moments of their lives. This play isn’t about telling audiences what to think. It’s about asking whether we genuinely believe people can change, or whether redemption is something we only support in theory.”

The production features one of Melbourne’s strongest independent theatre ensembles, including Ursula Searle (Fun Home, Melbourne Theatre Company; Apple Cider Vinegar, Netflix; Bluey’s Big Play; Gabby’s Dollhouse Live!), Alexander Given (The Airport Chaplain, SBS), Celine Khoury (Evil Orders, Amazon Prime; Love With No Remorse; An Evening with Kahlil Gibran), Claire Warrillow (The Sunshine Club; And Then There Were None; Holy Water: Crown of Thorns), Monty Burgess (Last Seen, Apple TV+; Utopia, ABC; Lee Nelson’s Well Funny People, BBC), Ali Samaei (Oedipus Rex, Othello, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Addams Family), Faouzi Daghistani (more than 180 film, television, commercial and theatre productions), Joanna Karanikolopoulos (Yes, Prime Minister; Magnus Ex), Esther B Ebony (Articulate; Other Gods; Vinegar Tom) and Jacob Saunders (Soyboy; Cowboys Doing Laundry; 3AW and the Nine Network).

Following the success of Son of Byblos, Love With No Remorse and An Evening with Kahlil Gibran, 12 Angry Actors is Asamina Theatre Company’s most ambitious original production to date. Combining the tension of a courtroom drama with the intimacy of backstage theatre, this compelling new Australian work promises to spark conversation long after the curtain falls.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
12 Angry Actors
Meat Market Stables, North Melbourne
20 – 30 August 2026
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/12-angry-actors-tickets-1991553435938
Tickets: $40 per ticket.

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Adore Händel’s Birthday Party Melb Fringe 8-17 Oct

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Adore Händel is celebrating their 269th birthday — and you simply must not miss the festivities.

Spanning centuries of ill-advised romances, electric chemistry, and the occasional catastrophic misjudgement, Adore has lived, loved, and documented it all in their legendary Little Black Book. Volume Three was to be the centrepiece of this evening’s festivities — a glittering collection of the most scandalous tales yet. There is, however, a slight complication…

Join Adore and their long-suffering assistant Peter for the most chaotic, glamorous, and surprisingly moving birthday party you’ll ever attend — complete with operatic vocals, baroque camp, and a burning question.

Part cabaret. Part whodunnit. All fabulous.

Adore Händel’s Birthday Party: Little Black Book Vol. 3 is the third installment of the award-winning drag cabaret series beloved by Melbourne Fringe audiences for its unique blend of classical music, theatrical storytelling, and absolutely zero shame.

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Dress appropriately. Bring a gift. Tell no one what you witness.

★★★★★ “One of the funniest sixty minutes you will spend at the fringe.” — Barry Hill OAM, Stage Whispers
★★★★★ “A glittering humorous show with a message which is stunningly performed.” — Rob McKinnon, Glam Adelaide
★★★★★ “Formidable, fabulous and fearless.” — Lilithia Reviews

ACCOLADES

Adelaide Fringe 2026 Weekly Award — Best of Cabaret
Fringe World 2026 Weekly Award
Melbourne Fringe 2025 Nominated Best in Cabaret | Judges’ Pick

SESSIONS — FESTIVAL HUB: TRADES HALL, ARCHIVE ROOM

★ Preview: Wed 7 Oct, 8:30 pm — $25 all tickets
Week 1: Thu–Sat 8–10 Oct, 8:30 pm | Sun 11 Oct, 7:30 pm
Week 2: Wed–Sat 14–17 Oct, 8:30 pm | Sun 18 Oct, 7:30 pm
Full price: $35.00 | Concession: $30.00 | Duration: 1 hour

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