A sperm donor interview may not be the first thing you expect to find on stage at a major arts festival. But Krishna Istha, the UK-based artist and writer known for using performance to question gender, identity, and society’s awkward contradictions, is bringing just that to Melbourne. As part of the Curated Program at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival, Istha’s durational performance, First Trimester, invites audiences into a deeply personal process: the search for a sperm donor.
Set within the broader “Passport” section of the Festival—an international spotlight showcasing standout global works — First Trimester doesn’t merely showcase a narrative. It is a living, breathing experiment in intimacy, decision-making, and vulnerability. The audience is not just observing. They’re offered the chance to step in, respond, and in some cases, become part of the process.
Istha’s work has always been direct, and often uncomfortably honest. In First Trimester, they push this further, asking audiences to grapple with the real-life logistics and emotional load of queer family-making. What does it mean to build a family outside traditional expectations? What kind of questions do you ask a potential donor? And what happens when that process unfolds in public view?
This is Fringe at its most unapologetically curious—challenging the idea of theatre as spectacle, and instead using the stage to probe, negotiate, and listen.
Simon Abrahams, Creative Director and CEO of Melbourne Fringe, describes this year’s edition as “a rallying cry for creativity in motion.” But in Istha’s work, the motion isn’t dance or drama — it’s a deliberate and sometimes uncomfortable walk through modern reproductive politics. “Action isn’t just activism,” Abrahams says. “It’s participation.”
That sense of active participation runs through this year’s Curated Program. From Belgium’s Ontroerend Goed placing a mysterious box on stage for audiences to collectively navigate, to a public dancefloor at Fed Square converting movement into stored energy, the Festival wants people to move—not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
And in the case of First Trimester, to reflect on the blurred lines between performance and life.
It’s a concept that fits squarely into Istha’s wider body of work. Their previous shows have tackled everything from masculinity to online dating, often blending documentary detail with performative irony. But here, the humour is more restrained. The stakes are real. The decision isn’t scripted.
Still, Fringe isn’t aiming to deliver answers. It’s trying to create space—sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes tender—where big, messy questions can sit in the open. Questions like: who gets to define family? How are reproductive rights shaped by privilege? What if the act of choosing a donor is as performative as it is intimate?
These aren’t rhetorical prompts. In First Trimester, they’re asked aloud, in the moment, by a real person standing on stage, asking strangers to bear witness—and maybe respond.
That invitation to bear witness extends across the Festival, now in its 43rd year and spanning over 500 events. But few works are likely to provoke as much quiet reflection, awkward laughter, and internal discomfort as Istha’s.
It’s that discomfort that might make First Trimester one of the most talked-about works this year—not because it’s loud or showy, but because it refuses to look away.
Fringe-goers used to surreal costumes or wild improvisations may find this performance deceptively simple. There’s no bombastic lighting, no epic finale. Instead, it’s just a person, standing on a stage, trying to make one of life’s most intimate decisions in full view of strangers.
And in 2025, that might be the boldest move of all.
Melbourne Fringe Festival runs from 30 September to 19 October. The full program will be released on 22 August via melbournefringe.com.au.
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