Picking what to see at Sydney Fringe Festival can be a little like having too many potential dates to the dance: you don’t know who to go with, then you end up staying home.

The breadth of shows can be pretty intimidating. There are over 100 acts performing across September, ranging from acrobatic feats, debut musicals, narrative-based dance performances and experimental theatre.

If you’re a little lost, we’ve whittled it down with six picks we think look pretty promising. It’s not a definitive guide, but these are good places to start.

Tilly Devine, May 1925, courtesy of State Reformatory NSW

Crocodile Tears

With more than 200 criminal convictions, Tilly Devine remains a notorious figure of Sydney’s underground. One of Australia’s wealthiest women, Tilly worked as a call-girl in the 1920s before running her own extremely successful (and illegal) brothel up to the ‘60s. In Crocodile Tears, playwright and actor Olivia O’Flynn examines Tilly beyond her crimes to look at her relationships, ambitions and desires.

WHO: Brevity Theatre
WHAT: Crocodile Tears by Olivia O’Flynn
WHERE: Tatler Sydney, 169 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst
WHEN:Wed 21st Sep, 7.30pm and Wed 28th Sep, 7.30pm and 9pm
HOW MUCH: $18-$22

Courtesy Roger McLassus/wikitravel.org 

Europe Won’t Fix You

Does anyone ever really ‘find themselves’ backpacking across Europe? Or, if you can, how do you hold onto ‘it’ – the new you – when you’re home? This play from Sydney-based The General Public Theatre Company is a look at post-holiday comedowns and questionable choices. Warning: may hit uncomfortably close to home.

WHO: The General Public Theatre Company
WHAT: Europe Won’t Fix You
WHERE: PACT, 107 Railway Parade, Erskineville
WHEN: Tues 20 Sep-Sat 24 Sep, 8.15pm
HOW MUCH: $18-$25

Eliza Sanders in Pedal  

Castles and Pedal

After a successful season at New Zealand’s Fringe Festival, dancer Eliza Sanders is bringing two one-woman dance shows, Castles and its prequel Pedal, to Sydney. Eliza’s somewhat frenzied dances are a bodied expression of her own stream of consciousness. Both Castles and Pedal see Eliza dance on and between the threads of her strangely-connected thoughts, asking the audience to keep up. 

WHO: Eliza Sanders & House of Sand
WHAT: Castles and Pedal
WHERE: Old 505 Theatre, 5 Eliza St, Newtown
WHEN: Alternating nights between Tue 20 Sep-Sat 24 Sep at 7pm, with a performance of both beginning at 6pm on Saturday.
HOW MUCH: $18-$25 each performance.

 “She don’t care about her reputation/Her pussy’s on high rotation”

QUEEN CXNT

Tiptoeing the line between theatre and performance, female art collective God Queen match an ecofeminist slant with Lil’ Kim-indebted raps like Alphamama’s ‘Ass In The Front’. Queen Cxnt will explore the idea of the feminine in the lives of seven women through short vignettes filled with glitter, aggressively-flamboyant costumes and fierce raps. 

WHO: God Queen
WHAT: Queen Cxnt
WHERE: The Midnight Shift, 85 Oxford St, Darlinghurst
WHEN: Thu 15 Sep and Fri 16 Sep at 7.30pm, Sun 18 Sep 6pm.
HOW MUCH: $15-$20

The Best Corn Chip In The Universe

The Best Corn Chip In The Universe is a classic example of ‘Only at Fringe’: it’s a one-man play with clowning and puppetry about a journey to meet the highest power of the universe. But also something about a corn chip.

It verges on unimaginable – what will this show even look like? Also, what does the best corn chip in the universe taste like? Can you eat such a corn chip? How do you know it’s the best corn chip in the universe if you don’t eat it (and all other corn chips)?

Maybe these questions will be answered. Maybe not. A quintessentially odd Fringe experience.

WHO: Michael Cullen
WHAT: The Best Corn Chip In The Universe
WHERE:  Old 505 Theatre, 5 Eliza St, Newtown.
WHEN: Tue 13 Sep-Sun 18 Sep, 8.30pm.
HOW MUCH: $15-$20

Crave

Playwright Sarah Kane’s 1998 work Crave is not a play but a “text for performance,” a malleable and experimental work with four characters – A, B, C and M – whose lines and identities are left to each performance to figure out. Read up on the allusions, themes and interpretations if you’d life, but we recommend heading in with a clean slate to experience Crave as it happens. 

WHO: Montague Basement
WHAT: Crave
WHERE: Erskineville Town Hall.
WHEN: Tue 20 Sep-Sun 24 Sep, 7pm.
HOW MUCH: $15-$20

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See the full program at sydneyfringe.com