What better way to spend a night than in the company of friends, enjoying great Australian short stories performed by talented actors?

Little Fictions, an evening of actors reading short Australian stories will present three different shows at the 2017 Newcastle Fringe Festival.

Each one-hour performance will showcase the ‘best of’ performances from the monthly Little Fictions held in Sydney’s Knox Street Bar.

Hosted by arts journalist and presenter, MC Adam Norris, the shows feature stories read by Sydney and Newcastle actors, Eleni Schumacher, Joel Horwood and Janet Gillam, all with a range of recent stage, film and television experience. As well as featuring authors from all across Australia, the shows will include work by local authors.

Vaginal Spray: feminist tales for women and men – Friday March 24, 9pm

A guy struggles to understand his girlfriend’s head-shaving grief over the death of poet, Dorothy Porter. A renegade chapter of the Country Women’s Association fights the good fight against cultural imperialism and a woman knits her pubic hair into a bicycle seat cover.

Vaginal Spray stories are about women who break away, women who stand their ground and women who stand by each other.

The Great Unknown: stories from the Twilight Zone Down Under – Saturday March 25, 7.30pm

If you are a fan of stories inspired by the ‘fifth dimension’ where inexplicable things happen, then you are in for treat.

In Patrick Lenton’s ‘Other Worlds’, a reader’s obsession with a fantasy author turns ugly. Melbourne author, Alex Cothren imagines a world in the not-too-distant future where people seek a cure for compassion fatigue. Wollongong author, Shady Cosgrove, finds a mysterious gathering of white goods on her lawn and Ryan O’Neill uncovers a Novocastrian horror story.

War, What Is It Good For? – Sunday March 26, 4.30pm

We take an unflinching look at wars, past and present. Melbourne writer Charles D’Anastasi tells of a bereaved husband wandering a bombed-out building wearing some of his wife’s clothes. It could be WW2 London or Berlin. Or modern-day Syria or Iraq. Newcastle author, Amanda Berry shows the lasting impact of war on a veteran while The Age Short Story winner, Louise D’Arcy gives a 3D picture of what life is like for those left at home in ‘Flat Daddy.’

These are stories about the human condition, so they can be wry and sometimes even laugh out loud. Sydney music journalist, Harry Kolotas depicts a farcical face-off on the streets of contemporary Greece which harks back to antiquity. And Ryan O’Neill’s clever and funny ‘My English Homework’ relates a feisty female refugee’s story entirely through ESL exercises.