Audiences may be spoilt for choice at the up-coming festival, with plenty of hard-edged theatre and saucy cabaret.

The Adelaide Fringe Festival has announced its 2017 programme, and with more than 1,100 events – including 290 comedy shows, 248 music events, 143 theatre productions and 132 cabaret shows, to name just a few – audiences look likely to be spoilt for choice over the four weeks of the festival.

“With a record number of shows on offer and exciting venues to explore,” said Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO Heather Croall, “we encourage everyone to get out there and take a risk with their show selection.”

The 2017 Festival will host a dizzying number of events to choose from, but here are some theatre and cabaret highlights to whet your appetite:

Harry Gibson’s theatre adaption of Scottish novelist Irvine Welsh’s iconic first novel Trainspotting will be making its Adelaide premiere in the Station Underground venue. Welsh’s novel – which was adapted into a highly successful film in 1996 – takes a brutal, comic look at the Edinburgh heroin scene in the 1980s.

Henry Naylor’s Angel

Inspired by real events, Henry Naylor’s Angel – the third play in his Middle Eastern trilogy – tells the story of a young Kurdish woman who became a crackshot sniper, fighting ISIS at the siege of Kobanî in northern Syria. The play picked up both a Holden Street Theatre Award and Scotsman Fringe First Award at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe.

Dylan Coles’ Blank Tiles

Melbourne performer, writer and comedian Dylan Coles will be bringing his show Blank Tiles to the Adelaide Fringe. Written and performed by Cole, the show tells the story of Austin Michaels, a former SCRABBLE World Champion – with a vocabulary of over 200,000 words – who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Among the cabaret events, American singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer will be coming out for An Evening with Amanda Palmer at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Known internationally as one half of The Dresden Dolls, Palmer will combine music, theatre and art with her love for Australia in a hymn to Vegemite – aka The Black Death.

Fresh from its run at the Brisbane Festival, Blanc de Blanc showcases cabaret and acrobatics, performing in Adelaide Fringe’s Garden of Earthly Delights while Petrasexual examines a society which often has a narrow definition of sexuality, gender and “acceptable behaviour”.

Adelaide’s own Anya Anastasia will also return to the festival after winning best  cabaret in Adelaide Fringe Weekly in 2016. Her show Tort e Mort: Songs of Death and Cake will apparently feature satire, striptease and cake.


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