Frankly’s Doom Box → Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival

Claiming, with delightful accuracy, to be “Adelaide’s best unknown export,” Frankly returns to her hometown for this year’s Cabaret Fringe Festival with Doom Box, a chaotic, charming hour of cabaret that’s perfectly unhinged!

On Tuesday night at The Howling Owl, we were welcomed into Frankly’s realm: just her, a mic, a keyboard, and a madcap mind full of biting wit and musical mischief. With a voice that instantly impresses and original songs that take unexpected, hilarious turns, it’s clear that Frankly’s brand of cabaret is completely her own.

She’s nutty in the best way- wild-eyed, quick-tongued, and gloriously unpredictable. You’re laughing before you even fully register what she’s said. One moment you're admiring her vocal control and piano chops, the next you’re jaw-dropped and bursting out laughing at a lyric about getting banned from Kilburn Savers (and you’ll have to see the show to find out why!).

Frankly’s set list roams freely, from childhood memories of befriending the school oddball to wry observations on feminine men and messy bedrooms, and it all works. In between songs, she’ll clock everyone in the room, sharing completely unfiltered anecdotes that will also leave you in stitches. Doom Box isn’t linear; it’s a rollercoaster of confession, comedy and chaos, grounded by an artist with serious talent and wild presence.

Doom Box is a razor-sharp, one-woman riot. If you only catch one show this Cabaret Fringe, make it this one. Just don’t expect to leave the same way you came in, Frankly’s got a way of rewiring you, one absurdly brilliant song at a time.