SUMMER NIGHTS 2026 MEDIA RELEASE
The Blue Room Theatre proudly presents Summer Nights 2026 as part of FRINGE WORLD 2026. Running from 21 January to 7 February, Summer Nights is Perth’s award-winning independent festival of performance, celebrating bold artistry and fresh ideas across theatre, comedy, music, and dance. A place of discovery, the festival brings big laughs, strange beauty, and fearless experimentation together on one stage. From punk clowns to poetic love letters, mythic dance to outback noir, our 18 shows are bursting with restless, curious artists unafraid to play. So, grab a drink, gather your mates, and see what happens when the lights go down and Boorloo’s wildest imaginations come out to play.
The Blue Room Theatre’s CEO Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa OAM couldn’t be more excited for the upcoming season:
“In 2026, our program is bursting with fresh voices, familiar faces, and stories that move between worlds; from the funny to the fierce, the deeply personal to the wildly experimental. Across our stages and festivals you’ll find epic dance theatre, myth and memory, punk clowns, love poems, cosmic hope, and roadhouse reckonings. It’s a year that asks: who are we becoming, together?”
For a glimpse of all the artists involved in this year’s festival, check out the official festival Trailer here
Why Summer Nights?
The festival has showcased 320+ works and supported 2,700+ artists over 14 years, cementing its reputation as Perth’s creative heartbeat during summer.
For tickets and more info, visit summernights.org.au | fringeworld.com.au
Red Hare’s Wish | Jialun Qi | 22 – 24 Jan
Red Hare’s Wish is an original stage musical based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, featuring an ensemble cast and a soundtrack that spans traditional and contemporary genres. Written, composed, produced, and directed by Jialun Qi.
Recess Duty | Bright Side Productions | 22 – 24 Jan
Overstuffed terms, endless interruptions, and instant coffee gone cold. Recess Duty is a comedic love letter from one primary school educator to another, offering various snapshots of staff room chaos, wild student battles, relentless admin, and the occasional heartfelt confession.
Human Entertainment | Noah Skape | 22 – 31 Jan
Clown-punk-cabaret chaos from Noah Skape in his debut solo festival show. Irreverent skits, found-audio worlds, and manic musical mayhem collide in an unrelenting ride through the highs, lows, and absurdities of being human. An equal parts poignant and off kilter show from one of Australia’s most exciting songwriters and musical theatre performers.
The Future Softly | Jo Omodei | 22 – 24 Jan
The Future Softly is a live, improvised solo dance exploring life, love, and death through movement. Guided by a shifting choreographic map, each performance is unique, blending delicate gestures and powerful phrases. Experience a poetic journey of presence, connection, and transformation.
Ron vs The Queen | Journeyman Story Company | 22 – 24 Jan
This is a story about Ron, a safari suit, a sequinned dress, a father, and a son. It tells of how they arrived as men in the world, despite not being accepted for who they truly are.
Black Girl in Five Acts | Taonga Sendama | 22 – 24 Jan
Black Girl in Five Acts moves through silence, memory, and survival to reclaim voice and body. Blending poetry, ritual, and movement, this solo performance honours Black girlhood in all its contradictions – fierce, tender, grieving, and joyful. A lyrical offering that asks you to witness, reflect, and feel.
Call Me Mother | Scarlet Rose | 27 – 31 Jan
Call Me Mother tells the story of a little girl who tried fitting in society’s boxes until they became a mother and decided to build their own. Join us for an evening of raw storytelling, rage and just a touch of whimsy.
sitting, screaming | New Ghosts Theatre Company | 27 – 31 Jan
A raw, funny, and fiercely moving Australian play, following 17-year-old Sam through family turmoil and one life-altering encounter.
Awarded ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ in its debut Old Fitz Theatre season, this production is a powerful story of resilience, vulnerability, and survival.
Hard Cheese: Rat in the City: One Last Bite | Dream Simulator | 27 – 31 Jan
The rat, the myth, the legend. Hard Cheese is back for his most maddening case yet. Clawed back into the underworld of hard-rind police work, he must follow the delicious trail that can only lead to one woman. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it Real-Life Actress Alison Brie, because it is. Every rat has its trap, and she was his.
SMOKO | Big Truck Productions | 27 – 31 Jan
SMOKO squelches down into the murky underworld of an outback rubbish dump. Landfill worker Beccy’s questioning of her inner void leads her into the town’s landfill, where she wonders why she feels like the rubbish she sorts. SMOKO explores how the way we treat our waste influences how we treat each other.
The Kakilambe Dance | Tony C Norment | 27 – 31 Jan
An Afro-contemporary dance-fusion presentation: where African rhythms meet hip-hop music in song and dance, revealing that ancestral movements live in today rhythms as cultural continuity.
Love Like This Isn’t Harmless | PDA Theatre Co | 29 – 31 Jan
How are families picked apart & put back together? Join this real-life queer family: a queer mother, a trans masc son, and a gay son as they navigate the intricacies of family connections: its joys, strengths, and angsty challenges. Through intimate poetry designed to sing, thrill, and break hearts, they reveal the core of this family’s queer, creative heart.
Making of a Man | Quindell Orton | 3 – 7 Feb
One dancer, a projection screen, a live camera, silicone abs, and a question: How does a body ‘do’ masculinity?
Making of a Man starts out like a TED talk, navigating pop culture, politics, and personal interviews, exploring who gets to ‘do’ masculinity and the potential in unsettling its rigid, chiseled codes.
The Colour of Trees | The Society Productions | 3 – 7 Feb
The Colour of Trees is a transcendent dance and poetry work that brings the four seasons to life. Through mesmerising movement and soul-stirring words, each performer embodies Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring, inviting audiences to reflect on change, growth, and the beauty within life’s imperfect cycles.
Hissterier | Amelia & Kailyn | 3 – 7 Feb
Two women and their feline friends attempt to navigate a world where they simply do not belong.
Are they a tad too eccentric or do they just adore all things cats?
Are these women in fact mad or is this their way of challenging and hissing at unjust gendered expectations?
The Balloon Dog Bites | Lazy Yarns | 3 – 7 Feb
Paulie Accio has had a big night. And his big night is followed by an even bigger day: performing at the birthday party of a nine-year-old self-identified angel. Nursing a particularly queer injury, he faces a relentless trial of pretentious desserts and errant blow torches that culminates in a shocking and senseless murder.
Bush Chook | The Šimić Theatre Co. | 3 – 7 Feb
It’s a hot summer’s night, and the jingle bells are days away from ringing. But when two strangers meet amongst cans of Emu Exports do the bells still chime? What happens to these two in the stillness of the Australian outback when men think no one is watching?
The Chair of Saint Peter (& Other Games) | Saga Sí | 5 – 7 Feb
The cardinals gather to choose the next Pope. Cameras roll, journalists report, the world watches. The Vatican calls it tradition but behind closed doors, alliances form, games are played, and the truth is stranger, funnier, and darker than anyone dares imagine.
The Blue Room Theatre
53 James Street, Northbridge, 6003, WA
All tickets $27 – $32
blueroom.org.au (08) 9227 7005
Media Enquiries
Mohammed ‘Ayo Busari’
Communications & Marketing Coordinator
Image credit: Apurva Gupta