Lane Cove’s Sydney Fringe season saves its biggest week for last. Four of the festival’s most talked about shows take over Pottery Lane Performance Space from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 September, the last big weekend of the season.
It is called Best of Fringe, and the name is doing what it says. These are not filler shows brought in to round out a program. Between them the four have a sold-out season, an Adelaide Fringe win, a Sydney Fringe award, two more Sydney Fringe nominations and a stack of four and five star reviews, and they have been picked up and dropped into a small room on Pottery Lane, ten minutes from the Plaza.
Tickets are $40 a show, or $44 for Gia Ophelia, plus a booking fee. Two shows run each night, at 6.30pm and 8pm, so you can make a double bill of it.
If you have watched the Lane Cove Festival @ Sydney Fringe program roll through September and thought you would get to something eventually, this is the week to actually do it.
Thursday 24 and Saturday 26 September
ODIE, 6.30pm
Homer’s Odyssey, relocated to Sydney at 1am after the trains have stopped, starring a Queensland State of Origin hooligan trying to get back to his missus Penny at the Ithaca Suites. Along the way he has to resist the siren call of the pokies and charm a few ten-foot sports-commentating sea monsters.
Written and performed by Emrys Quin and directed by Emily Farrell, ODIE is billed as high language, low brow, and it is very funny about Australian identity, masculinity and mateship without going easy on any of them. It sold out its city season at the Emerging Artist Share House, which is how it ended up here for an encore.
Winner, Adelaide Fringe 2026 Weekly Best of Theatre. Nominee, Adelaide Fringe 2026 Best of Theatre Overall. Nominee, Sydney Fringe Festival 2026 Best in Theatre. Five stars, TheatreNow. 1 hour. M15+.
That’s Me In The Corner, 8pm
There is a bloke in the corner of almost every Australian pub. Acoustic guitar, small PA, three hours of covers nobody asked for and everybody sings along to. This show is about him.
Gigz is the Australian Freddie Mercury, and the show is funny, a bit uncomfortable and more nostalgic than a Bubble O’ Bill. Underneath the singalongs it asks a straight question: in a world of algorithms, streaming and bedroom musicians, do we still need the pub muso?
There is a meat raffle at the end of every performance. We are not making that up.
Nominated, Best Comedy, Sydney Fringe Festival 2026. Four and a half stars, Fringe Feed. 50 minutes. M15+.
Friday 25 and Sunday 27 September
An Augmentation of Sitar by Ravi, 6.30pm
The one on this list most likely to surprise you. Ravi Ramjas plays sitar, but not the way you are picturing it. Expect creative covers of Taylor Swift, Coldplay, John Mayer, One Direction and Alicia Keys, live collaborations that change every night, and a genre-defying show that breaks most of the rules.
It is the most family-friendly of the four and the one to bring someone to who thinks they do not like Fringe.
55 minutes. PG. Allow extra parking time, the show starts strictly on schedule.
Gia Ophelia, 8pm
An actress whose career has stalled wants to play Ophelia one last time, and has to reckon with what the industry has decided she is now allowed to be. It is a darkly comic one-woman satire about infertility, ambition, sexism and ageism in the arts, and it returns to Lane Cove after sell-out seasons at Canberra Theatre Centre and KXT.
Written by Grace Wilson, directed by Jo Bradley and performed by Annie Stafford.
Winner, Best Emerging Artist, Sydney Fringe Festival 2025. Nominated, Best Theatre, Sydney Fringe Festival 2025. Four and a half stars from What’s On Sydney and Stage Door Podcast, four stars from Cultural Binge, Spot on Sydney and State of the Arts. 1 hour. M.
Where and how to book
All four shows are at the Pottery Lane Performance Space, 1 Pottery Lane, Lane Cove, opposite the Aquatic Centre, with free parking.
Tickets are $40 a show, or $44 for Gia Ophelia, plus a booking fee, and are available through the Sydney Fringe website. It is a small room, which is the whole appeal, and it also means these seasons sell out quietly rather than loudly.
Best of Fringe is presented by the Sydney Fringe Festival as part of the Lane Cove Festival @ Sydney Fringe, in partnership with Lane Cove Council.
The last big weekend
Sunday 27 September closes out Best of Fringe, but not the Festival. Bursting into Life plays Pottery Lane on Wednesday 30 September and Dear Stranger runs at The Canopy from 30 September, with Fringe Kids show I Couldn’t Find a Babysitter at Pottery Lane from 1 to 3 October and a Studio Ghibli Jazz Concert on 4 October. Close to 50 events across the month, and a fortnight of it still to run.