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Sydney Fringe has today announced the initial program for their new pop-up venue Fringe HQ Newtown featuring eight new works - including three world premieres, three Sydney premieres and two modern Australian classics - by a wide range of acclaimed and emerging Australian artists. Taking over the historic ballroom at 5 Eliza Street, the venue will be activated from April - December 2021, and will play a vital role in the COVID recovery for the independent arts sector.

Sydney Fringe Chief Executive Kerri Glasscock notes “The Sydney Fringe is committed to not only being here for our sector during recovery but to being a key driver of the lasting change we will need to ensure a viable future, and dynamic and vibrant nightlife beyond recovery. We are determined to ensure that our independent artists and their needs are at the centre of this new vision.

“Fringe HQ Newtown provides vital affordable and accessible performance space and we are delighted to be able to expand our longstanding partnership with the Trustees of 5 Eliza to fill the beautiful ballroom with a diverse program presented by an incredible talented group of artists from across the country. We can’t wait to share these works with Sydney.”   

The Sydney Fringe has long been championing the need for more affordable, accessible and importantly non-curated performance space in Sydney. The project Fringe HQ was created in 2018 as a way for the organisation, best known as the presenters of the largest independent arts festival in NSW The Sydney Fringe Festival, to work with their Government and provide sector partners to activate underutilised space for performance.

Presented in partnership with the 5 Eliza Trustees, the venue opens at a time when the sector fears losing many of its dedicated independent performance venues due to the impacts endured from the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Details for the Fringe HQ Newtown program include:

• 26th April 2021 | The One Day Of The Year presented by Lambert House Enterprises. A staged reading for Anzac Day in aid of the Actors Benevolent fund featuring leading talent Fiona Press (ABC's The Heights) and Anthony Phelan (The Kettering Incident, Galipoli) among a stellar cast.
• 19th - 29th May 2021 | Spike Heels presented by Crashing Water Theatre Company. Penned in the early 90s by award winning writer Theresa Rebeck, Spike Heels is a contemporary comedy that explores themes of sexual harassment, misplaced amour, and the possibility of a four-sided love triangle and offers a topical commentary on modern gender dynamics that demonstrates exactly how little has changed, and how far we have to go.
• 9th-12th June 2021 | Silly To Think by Sophie Davis. In a pandemic world under the Morrison government, Silly to Think exposes female oppression in the Absurdist form. At long last it is time to interrogate the absurdity of the conception of ‘woman’ as created by men and ask, ‘what happens when one escapes this definition and can we?’.
• 16th - 26th June 2021 | My Wife Peggy by Gavin Roach. Darling of the Melbourne Queer theatre scene, Gavin Roach presents My Wife Peggy, a moving meander through one man’s grief that unpacks the surreal, turbulent, and treacherous time of immediate loss.
• 7th – 17th July 2021 | Three Winters Green presented by Lambert House Enterprises. Lambert House Enterprises will present major reworking of Campion Decent’s modern Australian classic THREE WINTERS GREEN, which follows eight people through three years of their lives. From school through to drag; from dreams on a coach through to reality in a city; from alcohol through to realisation, each character is on a journey quite separate and yet eventually interlinked by a crisis of epidemic proportions.
• 21st – 31st July 2021 | Wil & Grace presented by Rogue Projects. Rogue Projects returns to Fringe HQ with Madeleine Withington’s debut play about two modern day women who find a naked William Shakespeare on their couch after a drunken seance on a stormy night in Petersham. A fresh new comedy with a big heart, this is a play about believing in things, for better or worse, because sometimes we desperately need to.
• 4th – 14th August 2021 | Charles & Larry by Xavier Coy. This funny, dark and heart-warming story probes the idea of the unbreakable family bond as two estranged brothers, brought back together through grief, attempt to rebuild their relationship. Written by award winning and critically acclaimed writer Xavier Coy, Charles & Larry is directed by the esteemed Claudia Barrie and features actor Lloyd Alison-Young.
• 18th - 28^th August 2021 | The Brainstorm presented by O'PUNKSKY'S THEATRE. The Brainstorm is a clever and fast-paced tapestry of comedy, intrigue and tragedy that joins acclaimed French writer Victor Hugo, exiled and alone in his studio, as he weaves together the essential threads of a ripping yarn which will become his next best seller.

Further programming will be announced in the coming months. For more detail and to buy tickets visit www.sydneyfringe.com. 

Image: Silly To Think by Sophie Davis. Courtesy the artist and Sydney Fringe.

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