Mehdi Mashhour on the jury of the 2024 Adelaide Fringe Festival

In 2024, Adelaide Fringe invited Mehdi Mashhour, director of Saye Theatre, to join the festival’s international judging panel, with a focus on Theatre and Physical Theatre.

Adelaide Fringe is one of the world’s major open-access arts festivals, bringing together artists and companies from Australia and around the world. Its awards program includes a dedicated Theatre & Physical Theatre category, with judges drawn from professional artists, arts industry practitioners, and experienced members of the performing arts community.

As a member of the jury, Mashhour attended performances and took part in the evaluation of works presented during the festival, contributing his perspective as a theatre director and an artist with more than two decades of experience in independent and experimental theatre.

For Saye Theatre, this invitation was another form of international participation, extending the group’s presence beyond presenting its own performances at international festivals. It also created an opportunity to engage with contemporary theatre and physical performance from different artistic contexts and to take part in the professional exchange that surrounds one of the largest Fringe festivals in the world.

The invitation to join the jury came alongside Saye Theatre’s continuing international activities across festivals, performances, workshops, and artistic collaborations.