Theatre Works and its nearby Explosives Factory venue are heading into a busy stretch of independent theatre, new Australian writing, physical comedy, musical theatre and Melbourne Fringe performances across September and October 2026.
St Kilda audiences can choose from a sharp examination of religion, Patricia Cornelius’s unsettling portrait of masculinity, a saintly physical-comedy, a fresh staging of Lord of the Flies, a new song cycle about hope and a gloriously overcharged Mel Brooks musical.
What’s on at a glance
- Big Religion — until 5 September, Explosives Factory
- Savages — 2–12 September, Theatre Works
- Holy Fool — 9–19 September, Explosives Factory
- Lord of the Flies — 18 September–2 October, Theatre Works
- The Eternally Hopeful — 22–26 September, Explosives Factory
- Girlhood in the Bathroom — 6–10 October, Explosives Factory
- Young Frankenstein — 8–24 October, Theatre Works
- NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea — 15–17 October, Explosives Factory
- Crapbox + Early Morning — 27 October–7 November, Explosives Factory
Big Religion
Until 5 September | Explosives Factory
Written and directed by Maddi Formosa | Presented by Fruitcake Productions
School is hell — and then an angel arrives with news of the second coming.
Maddi Formosa’s Big Religion approaches faith, identity and belonging from an off-centre angle, combining comedy with an unexpectedly tender story about friendship and love. The new work has attracted strong responses for its cast, inventive staging and willingness to ask large questions without losing its sense of humour.
An Auslan-interpreted performance will be held on Friday 4 September. Open captions are available on Thursday 3, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September.
Read more and book Big Religion
Savages
2–12 September | Theatre Works
By Patricia Cornelius | Directed by Kitan Petkovski
Four friends embark on the holiday of a lifetime, but celebration gradually gives way to menace as mateship, power and violence begin feeding one another.
In this politically charged production, AYA, Laila Thaker, Nicci Wilks and Zoe Boesen play four supposedly ordinary Australian blokes. The casting shifts the audience’s perspective while Cornelius’s muscular writing exposes the expectations, privileges and fear of vulnerability that can sit beneath familiar male banter.
The production contains coarse language and themes of misogyny and gendered violence, as well as nudity. Theatre Works is wheelchair accessible.
Read more and book Savages or read director Kitan Petkovski’s note.
Holy Fool
9–19 September | Explosives Factory
Created and performed by Fabio Motta | Directed by Giovanni Fusetti
Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, Holy Fool is a spiritual physical-comedy that leaps between the divine and the ridiculous.
With battles booming, wealth deepening and nature pushed aside, Motta’s fool goes looking for a forgotten path towards harmony. The result blends clowning, spiritual curiosity and joyful absurdity in a solo performance from the Green Room Award-winning creator of Spot.
Read more and book Holy Fool, read the interview with Fabio Motta or visit the rehearsal gallery.
Lord of the Flies
18 September–2 October | Theatre Works
By William Golding | Adapted by Nigel Williams | Directed by Steven Mitchell Wright
No adults. No rules. No way home.
After a plane crash leaves a group of boys alone on a remote island, early optimism produces rules, elections and a fragile attempt at order. Rivalry, fear and the attraction of power soon begin to redraw the map.
Steven Mitchell Wright directs a highly physical staging of Nigel Williams’s adaptation of William Golding’s classic. The production asks how quickly leadership can become tyranny — and what rises to the surface when social structures fall away.
The show contains adult themes, violence, strong language, theatrical blood, nudity, haze, smoke, loud noises and flashing or strobing lighting. Theatre Works is wheelchair accessible.
Read more and book Lord of the Flies
The Eternally Hopeful
22–26 September | Explosives Factory
Written and directed by Isabelle Davis | Presented in partnership with Fresh Works
Four actors, one piano and a deceptively simple question: can hope survive alongside hardship, fear and a world that often appears to be on fire?
Isabelle Davis’s new 50-minute song cycle tells a collection of intimate stories that test whether hope is a conscious choice or something more stubbornly innate. The songs move through optimism and heartbreak without pretending the two are opposites.
The performance on Friday 25 September will be Auslan interpreted.
Read more and book The Eternally Hopeful or read the interview with Isabelle Davis.
Melbourne Fringe at the Explosives Factory
Girlhood in the Bathroom
6–10 October | Explosives Factory
A new Australian musical set entirely in a nightclub bathroom on New Year’s Eve, Girlhood in the Bathroom follows five women in their twenties as they navigate friendship, love, harassment and the truths shared while the party continues on the other side of the door.
After seasons in Adelaide and Edinburgh, Girlhood Productions brings the show’s mix of original songs, humour and emotional candour to Melbourne Fringe.
Read more and book Girlhood in the Bathroom
NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea
15–17 October at 6.15 pm | Explosives Factory
Directed by Roman Berry | Created by Divergent Theatre Collective
Drawn from Euripides’s Medea, NA-IBA is not presented as a conventional retelling. It is a contemporary reckoning with displacement, betrayal, rage and the memory of crossing borders.
The ensemble brings roots across the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Chile, Vietnam and Iran to a work developed through body, ritual and multiple mother tongues. Each performance runs for 60 minutes and is followed by an open forum with the ensemble.
Read more and book NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea
Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein
8–24 October | Theatre Works
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan | Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks | Presented by Stage Bugs
The gloriously silly musical comedy inspired by Mel Brooks’s classic film brings mad science, Transylvanian secrets, broad comedy and a tap-dancing monster to the Theatre Works stage.
Dr Frederick Frankenstein — pronounced “Fronk-en-steen”, naturally — inherits his family’s estate and tries to distance himself from his grandfather’s notorious experiments. Igor, Inga, a lightning storm and one questionable scientific decision soon put an end to that respectable plan.
Read more and book Young Frankenstein
Crapbox + Early Morning
27 October–7 November | Explosives Factory
By Kevin Nemeth | Directed by Anne Browning and Tom Gutteridge | Presented by Theatre Works and Tandango Productions
Two short plays find gentle humour among love, loss, reconciliation and the everyday rubble of family life.
In Crapbox, a recently widowed man discovers that his regional Victorian tree-change home may be haunted. In Early Morning, a couple wake too soon and lie beside one another, negotiating anxieties, paradoxes and the pressing question of who will get up to make the coffee.
Veteran performers Anne Browning, Peter Houghton and Tom Gutteridge bring Kevin Nemeth’s domestic stories to the stage. The program runs for 60 minutes and contains themes of grief and terminal illness.
Read more and book Crapbox + Early Morning
Tickets, venues and access
Selected Tuesday performances are offered at discounted prices. Check the individual production pages for dates, ticket availability and concession details.
Theatre Works is at 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, and is wheelchair accessible.
Explosives Factory is in the rear laneway at 67 Inkerman Street, St Kilda. It is accessed by stairs and is not wheelchair accessible.
See the full Theatre Works program for performance times, content warnings and the latest ticket information.
Information supplied by Theatre Works and edited for publication.
