I declare Messy Friends The Show of the Fringe. It’s that perfect show you can only hope you will get to see in any Fringe Festival. It is quirky, original, manages to be avantgarde and a bit messy but also incredibly polished and beautifully realised. It takes the spirit of Fringe and yet again reinvents it to a whole new level of execution and delivery. It is breathtaking, astonishing, satisfying.

Messy Friends is a collective of queer performers from Perth under the artistic direction of Ginava. It comprises video interviews, and solo and group live performances. From these elements a coherent thread of storytelling is woven. But that’s the facts.

To recap the fun stuff:

It’s quirky. While each solo performance is original and refreshing, revealing so much talent, the group acts turn the quirk volume to blast. How often do we see purple and blue dancing dinochickens? Costumes made from thumbnail x-rays?

It’s original. It is Drag as performance art where ‘cross dressing’ is the least of it – the closing act is five brightly coloured, sparkling, shaggy creatures with articulated masks, lip-syncing and dancing their hearts out to Robyn’s ‘Between the Lines’. The fierce celebration of identity and living that embodies this piece is the perfect closing act.

It’s avantgarde. Ginava’s solo performance follows an interview where they talk about a dark time in their life. As the sound track, ‘Positif’ by Mr Oizo repeats, “Vous êtes des animaux” (You are all animals), the big purple monster with the shiny red rubbish tin shows us how it feels to be in that dark time. Moving, funny, poignant.

It’s polished and beautifully realised. Every step of choreography, every stitch of costume, is consciously chosen and executed. This is the flow of five uniquely different performers and personalities finding their groove together over long-time collaboration.

It is breathtaking, astonishing, satisfying. From Bobby Knox’s sinewy, energetic burlesque to Flynn V’s fiery, campy strutting, Mary Lamb O’God’s campy beauty queen with a twist to Alfie’s ballroom precision. And Ginava’s masterly vision bringing it all together.

With only four chances over this coming weekend to see it at the Hannah Playhosue, please give yourself the gift of this wonderful show.

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