Fringe at Trainscendence.
25 shows across the train carriages and themed rooms. Rooftop bar open Tue–Sun, ticket or not.
Hi :) For Melbourne Fringe we’re opening the rooftop bar every Tue–Sun, whether or not you’ve got a ticket to a show. Come up for a drink, stay for whatever’s on.
Rooftop bar hours
- Mon Closed
- Tue–Thu 5pm–11pm
- Fri–Sat 5pm–1am
- Sun 5pm–10pm
No booking needed for the bar. Tickets are for the shows.
Some nights the rooftop is privately hired or running a ticketed event. Check What’s On before you head up.
Rolling Stock Lane, Collingwood. Up the stairs, keep going til you see the trains.
The 25 shows
In order of opening night. Times and tickets are on each show’s Melbourne Fringe page.
- ComedyMon 28 Sep – Wed 7 Oct
Hollywouldn't
The Improv PitMelbourne's long-running improv and sketch crew builds an entirely improvised movie live on stage, with genre, plot and characters all pulled from audience suggestions. No two performances are the same, promising a fresh, unpredictable ride every night.
- TheatreTue 29 Sep – Sat 3 Oct
Crash Landing
Miles Leahy Baulch, Harry Rowe, Adrastea (AJ) Jacobs, Violet QuinnA sci-fi coming-of-age tale from a team of emerging theatre makers, following three misfit high schoolers whose friendship is tested when an alien starts devouring their school bully. It's a darkly comic genre mashup that uses the absurd premise to dig into bullying, survival, and loyalty.
- ComedyTue 29 Sep – Sat 3 Oct
Last Actor Standing
Lost Theatre Co. (Jay Watts & Noah Sargent)A semi-improvised theatre game show in which four actors battle through mystery rounds of social deduction, improv tasks and absurd debates to be crowned 'The Greatest Actor in the World.' Sixteen fringe performers rotate through the season with a different cast each night, building to a final champions round.
- ComedyTue 29 Sep – Thu 1 Oct
No Strings Attached
Erin PadowitzA campy, absurdist stand-up debut performed entirely by a puppet, encouraging audiences to heckle and interact as the amateur comic bombs and recovers through personal stories. It leans hard into the novelty and awkwardness of the format for laughs.
- Words & IdeasTue 29 Sep – Sun 11 Oct
Spoken Word Artist Presents: I Am Not Okay
Alexi EdwardsA decade of spoken word pieces tracing mental health, queer identity and politics, drawing on bush storytelling traditions and theatrical flair. Pieces range from cheekily titled provocations to sharp social critique, all delivered with narrative lyricism.
- ComedyTue 29 Sep – Sun 4 Oct
We Now Return To
Cameron HutchingsA world-premiere solo hour mixing stand-up with rapid-fire sketches, multimedia bits and TV parodies pulled from years of unfinished ideas the creator finally completed. It promises fast, high-energy entertainment that doesn't need a phone to keep you engaged.
- ComedyWed 30 Sep – Sun 18 Oct
Tumour has it...
Craig Coombes and Damian CosgriffTwo comedians who've each survived cancer turn their medical ordeals into dark, warm-hearted comedy, insisting up front it's not a support group and you're allowed to laugh. A family-friendly show about tumours that somehow manages to be genuinely funny.
- ComedyFri 2 Oct – Sat 17 Oct
The Doghouse LIVE: Late Night Talk Show
CorgiA live, improvised late-night talk show hosted by Melbourne comic Corgi, pulling in festival performers as guests alongside music and games each episode. Coming off a successful Comedy Festival run, it leans into upbeat chaos and audience unpredictability.
- TheatreMon 5 Oct – Fri 9 Oct
Attention
Jessica Grace SterleA one-woman dramedy, based on a true story, about a daughter's fraught relationship with a narcissistic, emotionally abusive father and the grief that follows his death. It's a deliberately messy, unfiltered look at how far someone will go chasing the attention they never got as a child.
- ComedyMon 5 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Jokes About The Time I Got Detained In America & Other Stories
Matt HarveyAn award-winning, internationally touring comedian turns his travel misadventures, including getting detained at a US border, into sharp, self-deprecating storytelling. The hour blends personal disaster with wider social observation, backed by strong reviews from other fringe circuits.
- TheatreTue 6 Oct – Sun 11 Oct
Music Is Power
Oscar BrayA satirical mockumentary-style show following a punk-metal band representing the fictional country of Tzernia at Eurovision, as its four members clash over how political their music can be in an officially apolitical contest. It's a pointed look at identity and artistic integrity under the pressure of representing a nation.
- TheatreWed 7 Oct – Sat 17 Oct
UN/BROKEN
Teula WyldeA veteran lived-experience storyteller and author of a memoir on living with bipolar disorder performs a solo piece about mental health stigma and human complexity. It's a reflective work about weaving perceived brokenness back into wholeness and pushing for wider acceptance of difference.
- ExperimentalThu 8 Oct – Tue 13 Oct
Live Access Encounters
Rogue AccessA disability-led collective's playful, participatory live art piece exploring what happens when accessibility itself becomes the artwork. Audiences help shape the storytelling in real time, in an encounter described as messy, heartfelt and different every night; no one is asked to perform, only to take part.
- ComedyThu 8 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
White Lotus - The Improvised Season
The Improv PitA fully unscripted comedy inspired by the White Lotus TV series, with a new cast of eccentric resort guests and dysfunctional staff spinning fresh vacation scandals each night. From the team behind sold-out prior fringe hits, directed by award-nominated improvisers.
- ComedyFri 9 Oct – Thu 15 Oct
Cocaine Socialist
Iain PringleA Scottish stand-up brings politically charged comedy to the festival, mixing absurd bits with pointed questions about staying a good person while the world burns. Expect a riotous, opinionated hour that swings between relatable gripes and outright silliness.
- MusicFri 9 Oct – Sun 11 Oct
My Friend Brad
Phoebe HiltonA storytelling-and-song show mining the creator's dating disasters and romantic misadventures for laughs, with audience participation woven throughout. It's pitched as a fun, communal 'girls' night' celebrating the terrible dates that make the best stories afterward.
- ComedyFri 9 Oct – Sat 10 Oct
Sue's
Suha NajjarA Middle Eastern, neurodivergent single mother turned comic reflects on identity, belonging and reinvention after leaving a corporate job in Dubai to chase comedy in Melbourne. She describes herself as having confused the algorithm, and the show explores the feeling of never quite fitting the expected box.
- ComedyFri 9 Oct – Mon 12 Oct
WOOOF !!
Jono Weston, written and directed by Micky DelahuntyA solo comedy-with-music show about Sam, who attends a month-long silent vegetarian meditation retreat at his ex's suggestion and spirals into a very loud spiritual crisis instead of finding peace. Reviewed elsewhere as charming and delightful, it's a warm portrait of a work-in-progress human trying to grow up.
- CabaretTue 13 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Don't Call Me Honey
Anna PCA feminist cabaret debut about receiving a cancer diagnosis at 33 on the way to a first date, told through original songs and dark comic storytelling. It's aimed at anyone who's been underestimated or told to smile through disaster, turning a grim year into something funny and defiant.
- ComedyTue 13 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Some cool dudes hangin' out (tellin' some yarns)
Tamara & DanTwo Melbourne comedy regulars trade a loose hour of stories that swing from grief and grandparents to hostels, hydrocarbons and fart jokes, mixing stand-up with music. It's an unpretentious grab-bag of whimsy that doesn't take itself too seriously.
- TheatreWed 14 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Dreaming of You
Lucy Nunn & Lilian James (Gumboot Theatre Company), directed by Henry KentA one-woman show that blurs reality and fantasy as its protagonist drifts between cities and states of consciousness, haunted by recurring dreams of an old crush while unemployed and isolated. From an award-winning company with prior Perth and Edinburgh Fringe runs, it's a tender look at loneliness dressed up as a dreamscape.
- ComedyThu 15 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Apocalypse, Now?
MortA debut stand-up hour from a two-time RAW Comedy State Finalist riffing on millennial anxieties and the doomsday prophecies he grew up dreading. Laid-back delivery meets sharp observational wit as he asks whether the end of the world actually arrived, or just adulthood did.
- TheatreThu 15 Oct – Sun 18 Oct
Short Stories about Latin Women
Alejandra Marín Oyarce, Jo Malta, Luna VásquezA collective of Latin-American and Southern-European creators present interconnected monologues about migration, identity and belonging, mixing drama, comedy and inherited wisdom. The work aims to put underrepresented voices from these communities at the centre of Australian theatre.
- TheatreFri 16 Oct – Sat 17 Oct
A Keynote for the End Times
Cecile BesterA satirical comedy about Sophie, a conference staffer thrown into chaos when a climate summit's keynote speaker cancels and she has an hour to save the event amid power outages and an over-eager environmentalist. Written by insiders from the climate movement, it pokes fun at burnout, performative optimism, and trying to stay sane while the world seems to be ending.
- MusicSat 17 Oct
Madam Nightingale & Friends Unplugged
Madam Nightingale (Phaedra Gunn)An intimate acoustic showcase pairing Madam Nightingale's folk-rock songwriting with emerging female songwriters from Melbourne's music scene, including guests Jo Maloney and Viki Mealings. Expect stripped-back trio and quintet arrangements alongside between-song chat about the craft of writing.
Want the rooftop to yourselves?
Private hire is on for the rooftop and the rest of the venue — see Hire a Space.