Fringe World 2024 comedy winner Kirsty Mann returns to Perth for 2025 encore of Skeletons at The Parlour

Rather than basking in her overall comedy award win onstage at last year’s Fringe Word awards ceremony, Kirsty Mann read about the achievement via text message while working night shift at a London hospital.

After a highly successful season of performing her comedy theatre hybrid show Skeletons, the Royal Academy of Music musical theatre graduate had already returned home to her other job in medicine as an anaesthetist.

She had managed to keep her two differing worlds, and the people in each, a secret from the other for about 10 years, until the double existence all became too complicated, which is what Mann’s show Skeletons is all about.

“I sat down to write a show, and it just kind of poured out of me very quickly in the space of about two weeks,” Mann says on the eve of bringing Skeletons back to Fringe World 2025.

“The central focus is my relationship with my best friend, who didn’t know I was a doctor because he was a creative and I didn’t want to tell him. You know when you meet someone, initially you don’t tell them, that’s fine, and then it’s months later, you haven’t told them and that’s still kind of fine, and then it’s 10 years later, and you’re completely stuck?

“So it’s about my relationship with my friend, how I told that person, and what that was like. It’s a story with a beginning, middle and an end.”

Skeletons is directed by Laura Corcoran from critically acclaimed double act Frisky & Mannish — who Mann first travelled to Fringe World with almost a decade ago in a cameo role — and has received rave reviews at both Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

The difficulty of finding work through her initial career as a performer led Mann to medical school — much to her parents’ approval — where she proceeded to work in the two fields side by side.

Fear of people not being able to see her legitimate talents in both led to the covert double life.

“I know it sounds mad, but I felt like I wouldn’t be taken seriously, let’s say, in the comedic space,” she shares.

“I felt like I would kind of make myself illegitimate in that creative space. I didn’t want to lose out on opportunities and was worried that people would be like, ‘oh, she’s not available because she’s a doctor now’.

“And of course, in the hospital, you want people to take you seriously, and you want your bosses to be invested in your training, and you don’t want your patients to be completely freaked out, thinking that you don’t want to be there or that you’re not up to it.”

Last year’s Fringe World award win was the validation Mann needed, the accolade boosting her confidence she is on the right track with Skeletons after the immense pressure she felt during the juggernaut of Edinburgh.

“In Perth, I was like, ‘I am just gonna come and have a really good time’,” Mann says from London.

“The show was so joyful, and the audiences were so joyful. I love Perth and I was really, really happy.

“I’ve been looking at the Fringe World Instagram and everyone just looks like they’re having such a great time. I’m really looking forward to doing the show again for audiences.”

Kirsty Mann: Skeletons is at The Parlour at The Pleasure Garden, Northbridge, February 5 to 16, tickets at fringeworld.com.au.

Looking for something more family-friendly at Fringe?

The Little HOO-HAA!

This improvised comedy show is notorious for creating big laughs from little people. See two teams of comedians go head-to-head in a battle of songs, sketches and slapstick with hilarious results at Rehearsal Room 1 at State Theatre Centre of WA until February 2.

Kaboom!

Magnus Danger Magnus is the maddest of mad scientists as he sets kids’ curiosity ablaze in this 60-minute science extravaganza of explosions and experiments. Experience the electrifying result at The Gold Digger at The Pleasure Garden until February 16.

Peter Combe In Wash Your Kids In Orange Juice!

Original king of the kids Peter Combe returns to Fringe World with new songs like A Frog in My Cheese Sandwich and 10,000 Stars, alongside nostalgic favourites including Newspaper Mama, Juicy Juicy Green Grass, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Toffee Apple. Get your Mr Clicketty Cane on at Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden, February 15.

Bubble Show In Space

Bubble Laboratory is back with Bubble Show In Space, a cosmic soap-tastic adventure of unimaginable bubble-filled fun that finishes with a mega bubble party. Be wowed in the best bubble-filled way possible at Main Hall at Perth Town Hall until February 2.

The Quadrangle

You can always count on kids to tell it like it is. This co-presentation by Whiskey & Boots and Barking Gecko Arts is an unfiltered verbatim theatre performance created for the whole family as it explores the candid perspectives of young people. Experience the honesty at Rehearsal Room 1 at State Theatre Centre of WA until February 1.