With more than 1500 shows spanning comedy, cabaret, circus, theatre, music, visual art, interactive works and large-scale immersive experiences, Australia’s biggest arts festival will once again transform Adelaide into one of the world’s most bustling cultural destinations. With so much on offer, Australian Arts Review takes a look at 19 shows worth checking out:
A Kingdom of Fools
The Parks Theatres, Angle Park: 27 February – 1 March
Following a sell-out Sydney run, the medieval mayhem continues in Adelaide! On royal orders, Sir William Drakeford and his bumbling knight arrive to transform the village of Gotham into King John’s new countryside retreat. The locals must act fast to stop them. With little time and even less sense, they hatch a plan to keep the royal intrusion at bay. Set in a raucous alehouse where gossip flows and panic reigns this quick-witted farce spirals gloriously out of control. Imagine The Play That Goes Wrong colliding with Monty Python in a medieval tavern: a love letter to mischief, rebellion, and the idea that wisdom sometimes wears a very silly face.
All These Pretty Things
The Box at ARTHUR ARTHOUSE: 5 – 10 March
What do you do when your husband leaves you for your teenage goddaughter? You dye your wedding dress black, write killer songs, and make a show. #TrueStory. All These Pretty Things is Tracey Yarad’s raw, darkly funny blend of memoir and music – a phoenix-rising tale that takes audiences from Australia, through the wreckage of a 23-year marriage, to a bold new life in New York City. It’s an evocative portrait of resilience, creativity, and the power of love and music to heal.
Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett
Aurora Spiegeltent at The Garden of Unearthly Delights: 21 February – 22 March
The hottest cabaret club East of Berlin comes to Adelaide! Join deliciously salacious, über-award winning Bernie Dieter as her gin-soaked haus band soundtracks a night of breathtaking circus, gender-bending aerial and fire-breathing sideshow at its most provocative and hilarious best. With a dizzying line-up of world class artists it’s an unmissable night of debauchery done right. A triumphant middle finger held up against the mundane, this show is a life affirming lightning bolt of pure, unadulterated joy!
Bob Marley: How Reggae Changed The World
The Arch at Holden Street Theatres: continues to 22 March
From Off Broadway to a sell-out Edinburgh Fringe, award-winning artist Duane Forrest takes audiences on an uplifting, deeply human journey through the music & legacy of global phenomenon Bob Marley. Blending soulful renditions of Marley’s classics with heartfelt stories of identity, ancestry & rediscovery, Forrest explores how reggae became a rhythm of unity, resistance &healing. Raised in Toronto by Jamaican parents, wrestling with identity, colourism, and cultural disconnection, he reflects on finding belonging through Marley’s message – reminding us that, in the end, every little thing is gonna be alright.
Eat The Rich (but maybe not me mates x)
The Studio at Holden Street Theatres: continues to 22 March
The award-winning autobiographical one-woman play written by and starring Jade Franks is the recipient of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Holden Street Theatres Award. The show transfers to Adelaide directly from a sold-out season at London’s Soho Theatre in January. Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) follows a bright, working-class Liverpudlian student who earns a place at Cambridge University, only to secretly take a job as a cleaner to make ends meet – risking everything if she is caught breaking university rules and social codes. Inspired by her own experience, Jade navigates this new world of privilege where students aren’t supposed to have jobs, let alone work for the very people they socialise with. Her double life becomes a constant tightrope walk between ambition, shame, and survival.
EDEN
The Gallery at The Courtyard of Curiosities at the Migration Museum: 17 – 22 March
A lyrical coming-of-age story about identity, desire, and the cost of becoming. Siren Theatre Co presents the world premiere of EDEN – a new play by Kate Gaul. Set over one charged summer, the play explores identity, transformation, and the quiet violence of becoming. EDEN follows Kit and Dan as their lives hover between past and possibility. Desire, guilt, and the ache for belonging entwine as the pair navigate a landscape where myth blurs the present, and where every step toward self-knowledge carries a cost. Infused with a distinctive theatrical language, EDEN unfolds as part confession, part elegy, part mystery. As the story deepens, beauty and danger become inseparable, revealing the fragile moment when identity takes shape – and something precious is lost forever.
Eva Seymour as ‘The Understudy’
The Den at Dom Polski Centre: 20 February – 1 March
She knows all the lines. She’s memorised every cue. Now she waits for a call to tell her Amy has gastro. Exploring the anxiety-fuelled existence of the professional swing, The Understudy dives into the desperation, jealousy, and gratitude for the gig that fuels the perpetual waiting. But that waiting has consequences… When you put everything on hold, what do you have left? After years of experience as the person in the wings, Eva Seymour brings her silly, surreal and sometimes mortifying experiences to a fast-paced laugh out-loud one-woman catastrophe.
Excel comedy & Mathem-antics
Various venues: 7 – 22 March
Comedy show for spreadsheet experts and casual users alike, performed by a true piece of sheet, that blends stand-up, storytelling and demos. Sprinkled amongst the comedy routine, you’ll learn a few Excel tricks from pun-loving Excel YouTuber and Jewish math addict David – The Excel Comedian. By holding the official Microsoft MVP Award for Excel, David is considered by Microsoft to be amongst the top 100 or so Excel people worldwide, and he advises Microsoft on future directions for Excel. Growing up with a maths obsession shaped David’s life and paved the way for him to become ‘the Excel guy’ at the office, attend spreadsheet conferences and indulge in mathem-antics.
FLOP! The Best Songs From The Worst Musicals
Spiegel Zelt at The Garden of Unearthly Delights: continues to 8 March
The virtuosic Arthur Hull returns to Adelaide Fringe 2026 with an updated version of FLOP! – the musical cabaret inspired by some of the West End and Broadway’s least loved musicals. FLOP! features the best songs from the worst musicals – a motley assortment of the misunderstood, critically panned and financially catastrophic, including some obscure and forgotten gems. The show made its critically acclaimed debut at Adelaide Fringe in 2025 winning the Best Emerging Artist Award before playing Edinburgh Festival Fringe later the same year where it won Best Entertainment at the Dark Chat Awards.
INFERNO
The Flamingo at Gluttony: 20 February – 20 March
Australia’s Hottest Fire Show puts the flaming inside The Flamingo at Gluttony. Forget everything you think you know about fire performance! INFERNO is an award-winning fusion of danger, seduction, and skill that boasts the country’s BEST fire artists to redefine what’s ‘hot’ at the Adelaide Fringe. Fuelled by fire-breathing emcee, Clara Fable, will guide you through one hour of unbridled ferocity. If you’re looking for a night packed with heart-racing entertainment, guaranteed, you’ve found it. Brace yourself for the impact, secure all loose items (including your composure). Trailblazing fire play side effects may include a dropped jaw from mind melting material. Every act features fire manipulation and passion for the practice, ready to turn your casual evening into a hot night out.
La Ronde
The Spiegeltent at The Garden of Unearthly Delights: continues to 22 March
The high-flying, five-star hit La Ronde returns to Adelaide in 2026 – bolder, wilder, and more unmissable than ever. Step into the round and surrender to the intoxicating world of La Ronde – a lavish and brave seduction of dizzying spectacle, from the creators of Blanc de Blanc and LIMBO. This isn’t just a show; it’s an invitation to lose yourself in the extraordinary. A single beam of light slices through the dark, the beat drops—and suddenly, the Spiegeltent explodes into stars. Glittering bodies spin overhead, limbs hang in the balance, and boundaries begin to blur. At the centre of this heady cocktail of circus, live music, and comedy are groundbreaking headliners, world-class provocateurs, and raw, electric energy direct from the world’s most elite stages.
Little Miss Typecast
The Den at Dom Polski Centre: 28 February – 1 March
Cabaret newcomer Chloe Halley is bringing smash hit show Little Miss Typecast to the Adelaide Fringe. Stuck playing the kid while her peers get to grow up, Chloe Halley is pint-sized, pigeonholed and politely losing it. Little Miss Typecast is a cheeky, sharp as a tack cabaret, packed with killer songs, dance breaks for days, and a desperate attempt to prove she can grow up too. She’s done playing the kid. Unless, of course, the role is still available. Directed by cabaret royalty Dolly Diamond, alongside co-writer Dom Hennequin, Little Miss Typecast promises an evening of high-energy comedy, dynamic vocals and tongue-in-cheek storytelling about life as a performer who never quite grew out of the child roles.
LIVE MANGA
The Kingfisher at Gluttony: 19 February – 1 March
After Twelve years from the fringe street events in 2012, GABEZ returns with their international awards-winning performance LIVE MANGA! GABEZ creates non-verbal performances based on mime. Their funny yet simply composed physical comedy has been enjoyed by audiences of all ages around the world. MASA and HITOSHI play a variety of comical characters that make audiences laugh, gasp, and sometimes even scream! At the Tokyo Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2021, their “Pictogram Performance” captured the attention of the world. This is a family-friendly spectacle not to be missed.
PILGRIM
The Lab at Fool’s Paradise | Goodwood Theatre and Studios: 25 February – 8 March
Following the footprints of the elusive bull (in the Zen tradition of the Ten Ox-herding pictures), an accidental pilgrim embarks on a journey to recover her lost faith in love, or perhaps faith itself. As she wanders deeper into the birthplace of the Western foundational stories, she is guided by an unseen hand back to her own spiritual origin, to retrieve something she’d exiled long ago. Created by an award-winning team of performer/writer Kate Walder, composer Max Lyandvert and designer Michael Hankin, this solo clown-based physical theatre work takes us on a timeless quest through Rome, Athens and Jerusalem – the great cities of myth, reason and revelation that may just save us yet.
Skank Sinatra: The Name on Everybody’s Lips
The Lark at Gluttony: 9 – 15 March
Broadway’s greatest hits explode in a glittering cabaret spectacular as award-winning diva Skank Sinatra struts into the spotlight with powerhouse vocals, biting comedy, and lashings of sequinned charm. Two-time winner of Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe, Skank Sinatra joins forces with musical maestro Joe Louis Robinson for a brand-new show bursting with electrifying live vocals and camp big-band bangers. Broadway’s biggest hits, reimagined with wit, sparkle, and style. Co-created by Jens Radda & Carly Fisher, expect razzle-dazzle, satire sharper than a Patti LuPone glare, and vocals big enough to bring down the Phantom chandelier.
Tash York is Drop Red Gorgeous
BankSA Theatre at Gluttony: 17 – 22 March
Award-winning, wine-loving cabaret queen Tash York is Drop Red Gorgeous; a crimson-soaked tribute to the iconic redheads who’ve slayed stages, stolen spotlights, and inspired generations. As the second most famous redhead from Brisbane (and no, Pauline Hanson is not in the show), Tash channels legends from Adele to Annie Lennox, Bette Midler to Bowie, Florence (without the Machine) to Ed Sheeran, Lucille Ball to Rihanna (yes, that era counts). Celebrating 10 years in the biz, she serves chaos, comedy, powerhouse vocals, and more wigs than Queen Elizabeth I. Expect outrageous tales, original songs, glamour on a budget, and the kind of unhinged energy only a seasoned redhead can deliver. Because behind every great redhead is a bottle of Shiraz… and a questionable decision.
The Debate
The Arch at Holden Street Theatres: continues to 22 March
From the multi-award-winning team behind GROUNDED and THAT BOY comes a bold, darkly funny new drama starring award-winning actor Martha Lott. A mother sits waiting, filled with ambition and pride. Her daughter, exceptional, smart and the state’s top debater, is on the verge of national selection, a rivalry ignites that pushes motherly love to the edge. She understands the power of words; it’s her job. A campaign for success, personal ambition and political spin collide. A gripping exploration of control, morality, and the seductive power of persuasion — a mirror to our world of curated truths and competitive parenting. Darkly comic, sharply intelligent, and heartbreakingly human, The Debate asks: when every story can be spun, what chance does the truth really have?
The Pink List
Ruby’s at Holden Street Theatres: 20 February – 8 March
The haunting new one-person musical inspired by untold stories of gay men in post-war Germany comes to Adelaide Fringe for a limited season. 1957 West Germany. The battle against the Nazis ended twelve years ago – but for Karl, a gay concentration camp survivor, the war never truly ended. While most laws have been dismantled, the Nazi-era law persecuting homosexuals remains in force. Karl now finds himself on trial once again, branded a repeat offender instead of a recognised victim. The Pink List takes its name from the lists created by the Nazis to track and target gay men – records that continued to be used by the German police in post-war years. The show sheds light on a chapter of history too often erased, and on the fight for recognition in a society still unwilling to acknowledge its victims. Written and performed by Michael Trauffer, and with musical supervision and orchestrations by Sarah Morrison, this original musical draws inspiration from the lived experiences of gay concentration camp survivors.
Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England
The Studio at Holden Street Theatres: 21 February – 8 march
It’s the EURO 2020 Final at Wembley – and Billy’s just gone viral for sticking a flare up his arse! This blisteringly funny, wildly original play returns to Adelaide this Fringe after sell-out runs and international acclaim. Billy and his best mate Adam live and breathe football – it’s their escape, their religion, their life. But when a new crowd enters the scene, their loyalty and identity are pushed to the limit. Back for a second year after winning Best Theatre Show at Adelaide Fringe 2025, this is the multi-award-winning bum flare play that’s taken the world by storm. Raw, hilarious, and unexpectedly moving, Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England dives deep into fandom, masculinity and belonging – with explosive results.
The 2026 Adelaide Fringe Festival runs 20 February to 22 March. For more information and full program, visit: www.adelaidefringe.com.au for details.
Images: La Ronde – photo by Jacinta Oaten | The Cast of A Kingdom of Fools (supplied) | Tracey Yarad (supplied) | Bernie Dieter – photo by Rachel Mia | Duane Forrest (supplied) | Jade Franks stars in Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) – photo by Pleasance | EDEN – photo by Andriyko Podilnyk | Eva Seymour as ‘The Understudy’ (supplied) | Excel comedy & Mathem-antics (supplied) | Arthur Hull stars in FLOP! (supplied) | INFERNO (supplied) | La Ronde (supplied) | Little Miss Typecast – photo by TNS Studios | LIVE MANGA (supplied) | Skank Sinatra: The Name on Everybody’s Lips (supplied) | Drop Red Gorgeous – photo by KTB Media | The Debate (supplied) | The Pink List (supplied) | Alex Hill in Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England – photo by Rah Petherbridge