20 January – 14 February

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This show belongs to the FRINGE WORLD Festival 2026 season. This season is now over.

A person stands outdoors at night beside a tree, wearing layered green and brown fabric and a white head wrap stained with red. Their expression is tired but steady, and both hands are raised in peace signs with fingertips smeared in red paint.
FRINGE WORLD Festival 2026

BARKLIFE with Tara Bark

Fran Middleton finally returns to FRINGE WORLD, but this time as a tree… with a head injury… who also happens to be everyone’s favourite mindfulness meditation teacher, Tara Bark.

Part clowny, part stand-upy, part therapy, it’s the show we all need right now.
Will it contain visualisation? Breathwork? Journeying? A cameo by Kundalini the serpent? Who knows! You do. We do. Tree do.

Come get rooted in the present moment for "a sense of enormous well-being" - Barklife.

Melbourne International Comedy Festival 'Golden Gibbo' Nominee (2017)

“Absurd and otherworldly, one to watch.” – Beat Magazine, 2017
“Really, really fu**ing funny.” – Popculture-y, 2018
“30% are pretty confused, and can’t really understand why everyone else is laughing so hard.” – Popculture-y, 2019

Presented by: Fran Middleton

Fran Middleton is an actor/comedy weirdo/artist who started out in theatre and improv in Perth (Whadjuk Noongar Boodja). She has since been on the telly (random ads, The Checkout, Kiki & Kitty) and performed in festivals across the country, evolving her abstract Golden Gibbo Award nominated (MICF, 2017) mix of stand-up and physical comedy to provoke the kinda laughs that blurt out of you uncontrollably, similar to farts. Fran has a background in devising and performing theatre and comedy shows, composing music, teaching voice, music and improv, and has developed an interest in exploring the crossover between spirituality and performance, and now finds herself channelling a trippy tree character for the collective!
Comedy • Interactive
Australia • Western Australia Premiere
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Suitability & warnings

Content rating: MA15+
Family friendly: No
Mental Health
Coarse Language: Occasional
Audience Participation: Occasional

Please note

References to death

Presenter

Presented by: Fran Middleton

Fran Middleton is an actor/comedy weirdo/artist who started out in theatre and improv in Perth (Whadjuk Noongar Boodja). She has since been on the telly (random ads, The Checkout, Kiki & Kitty) and performed in festivals across the country, evolving her abstract Golden Gibbo Award nominated (MICF, 2017) mix of stand-up and physical comedy to provoke the kinda laughs that blurt out of you uncontrollably, similar to farts. Fran has a background in devising and performing theatre and comedy shows, composing music, teaching voice, music and improv, and has developed an interest in exploring the crossover between spirituality and performance, and now finds herself channelling a trippy tree character for the collective!