Shay Mace
From Drag to Doctors Appointments, and Boxing to Bodyswapping, there’s plenty to be excited for as Prague Fringe unveil their Queer Fringe programme for the 2026 festival, due to kick off in exactly a week’s time. Prague Fringe have long championed underrepresented voices as part of their programme, and this year’s roster is packed full of stories exploring queer themes, created by LGBTQIA+ artists, and open to everyone and anyone.
Travelling from Australia as part of their ongoing European tour, Ryan Stewart will bring their acclaimed and newly reworked piece Kinder (26 – 29 May), to the festival – asking questions about nature and nurture, and exploring childhood through the lens of a drag performer forced to hastily rearrange their ‘drag reading hour’ when they find out not all is what it seems. Stewart’s piece, under their production company a ry presentation, earnt a hearty five stars from Binge Fringe when we first saw it at Adelaide Fringe last year, and is expected to be just as dazzling and daring as it arrives in Prague.
Family and childhood is a recurrent theme of the festival – with Antonio Anzilotti De Nitto arriving with the first English language presentation of Roots – Radici (25, 29 & 30 May), fresh from that Catania OFF Fringe Festival this past autumn. Roots explores three intertwined stories – a boxer, a doctor, and a young boy.
Batting for the home team, The Virgin Mother Bleeds (22-23 & 26-27 May) looks to explore autonomy and self-control through an absurdist setting. It’s the debut of a new work from emerging Czech playwright Bibiana Nesvadbová, seeing two women wander into a hospital room and seek to answer the question ‘If your savior never existed, who would you worship?’
Also debuting is the preview of a new work from No Tits Theatre, who won the Binge Fringe Queer Performer’s Award at EdFringe in 2025. Boobytrapped (25, 29 & 30 May) sees two gay men, Simon and Kevin, swap bodies after an unexpected supernatural intervention in the bathroom of a gay club. Forced to navigate each other’s identities, one being a cis man and the other a trans man, expect playwright Freddie Haberfellner’s trademark blend of hilarity and uplifting, empowering, introspective exploration of trans identities and popular culture.
Speaking of Binge Fringe, our very own writer Callie O’Brien will transfer her sci-fi multimedia storytelling piece Shallowspace (22-23, 26 & 28 May), which sees the conclusion of its European tour having performed in Edinburgh, Dundee, London and Dublin over the past year. The show explores the trans legacy through the eyes of nerdy nostalgia and practical body horror.
Adding stand-up to the programme, Ana Falcon returns to Prague Fringe with her autobiographical comedy hour #1 Mexican in Estonia (28-30 May). Falcon is the founder of Pussy Jam Comedy. a collective that creates safe spaces where LGBTQ+ people and their friends can enjoy stand-up in English in Tallinn.
If you’re headed to Prague Fringe this year (and if not, why not!), you’ll find a roster that lifts up all ends of the queer spectrum, and platforms their stories. It’s one of the several seasons running during the Fringe, which we’ll be shining a light on over the next week.
Find out more and book your tickets using the Prague Fringe Online Box Office.
