Darebin Arts' 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival Season Set for October

The municipality on the fringes of Melbourne's inner-north, the City of Darebin is poised to provide Melburnians with an authentic 'fringe' experience during the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival from Wednesday 16 - Saturday 3 October, 2015. Boasting a mix of cutting-edge and innovative dance, theatre and family entertainment at flagship venues Northcote Town Hall and Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre in Preston, Darebin Arts' 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival season will set the city's Northern suburbs alight with festival activity.

"The City of Darebin embodies the true spirit of fringe - both geographically and artistically," said Robin Penty, Acting Manager, Creative Culture, City of Darebin. "We are delighted to be a part of the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival, in particular with our shared new focus on family-friendly events. We are also a proud home for Melbourne's daring and cutting-edge performers and are likewise excited by the program of innovative independent theatre, dance and live art taking over Darebin's theatres and open spaces."

Innovative and participatory events for kids and families are at the centre of the Darebin Arts' 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival. Presented under the umbrella kids program LoudMouth, highlights include Polyglot Theatre's world premiere Separation Street. Set in the unknown reaches of outer space, Separation Street is a walking theatrical adventure with a twist: kids are separated from their accompanying adults and taken on their own electrifying journey into a tangible, interactive and walk-through world.

Random Musical is a 'one of a kind' performance especially for kids and families from the award-winning creators of Spontaneous Broadway. Playing Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre, kids and families will help create the script for Random Musical that will be performed on-the-spot by talented comedians Scott Brennan, Rik Brown and Gillian Cosgriff.

Legendary children's singer-songwriter Peter Combe returns to Melbourne these September School Holidays with a brand new Melbourne-premiere show Wash Your Kids in Orange Juice. Melbourne families can sing their hearts out to Combe's seminal classics including, Mr Clicketty Cane, the fictional character who famously washes his face with orange juice, Newspaper Mama, Toffee Apple, Juicy Juicy Green Grass, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Quirky Berserky the Turkey from Turkey ... and many more.

MKA: Bounty is the centrepiece of Darebin Arts' Speakeasy program of independent theatre at Northcote Town Hall. Placing Campbell Newman under the microscope in an absurdly epic tale of gladiators, hot tubs and bikies, MKA: Bounty is a collision of political satire and Ancient Rome and offers a searing insight into radicalisation, vice and moral panic in modern Australia.

Famously criticised by Ella Fitzgerald as "the greatest singer in the world without a voice", hunky-voiced German chanteuse and film star Hildegard Knef will find her voice anew in a one-woman-show by April Albert, HILDEGARD/KNEF. Knef's story of struggle and triumph is paralleled to creator Albert's own life story on stage in this original one-woman-show featuring many of Knef's most popular songs performed live.

Modern-day masculinity is interrogated in new performance art work by Matthew Adey, Homme. Inspired by the birth of his daughter and the patriarchy she will inevitably navigate in adulthood, Adey will bravely examine his own masculinity, sexuality and home life with brutal (often humiliating) honesty.

An immersive dance performance where performers and audiences alike are invited to 'play pretend', world-premiere Pose Band will let loose imaginations at Northcote Town Hall. With no two shows ever the same, audience members will be invited to interact with performers and construct the performance in real time.

This is What's Happening is about what is happening now. From the mundanity of 9 to 5 corporate jobs, to the ignored spluttering of an ailing planet, the multiplicity of life will come together in this new contemporary dance work. A collaboration between dancer-choreographers Alice Dixon and Caroline Meaden alongside performance maker and writer William McBride, This is What's Happening will create a layer-cake of imagery, rhythm and meaning that speaks to what it is to be alive today.

Darebin Arts is the City of Darebin's flagship arts and culture department. Featuring umbrella programs LoudMouth and Speakeasy that cater to kids and families and independent theatre-goers respectively, Darebin Arts presents a year-round program of new, exciting and innovative theatre productions from around Australia.

TICKETS ON SALE 6PM TONIGHT TUESDAY 11 AUGUST

For tickets and more information visit darebinarts.com.au or call Northcote Town Hall on 9481 9500, Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre on 8470 8282. Tickets also available via Melbourne Fringe Box Office, melbournefringe.com.au or 8470 8282.

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