From Heartbreak to Hope: Award-winning Cabaret Have You Met My Grief? Returns to the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2026
Adelaide audiences will laugh, cry and see grief in a whole new light when Jodie Atkinson brings her acclaimed cabaret Have You Met My Grief? to the 2026 Adelaide Fringe.
★★★★ “Strong and Courageous” – Glam Adelaide
★★★★ entertaining, enlightening and inspiring” – Mindshare
“A warming and honest examination of grief” – Glam Adelaide.
Winner of the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Debut Award (2023). Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award – Cabaret (2024 & 2025) and recipient of the SA Mental Health Commissioner’s Performers Grant (2024) Atkinson has quickly become one of the most authentic voices in Australian cabaret.
Adapted from her book of the same name, this heartfelt rollercoaster of storytelling and song personifies grief as an unexpected companion – awkward, unpredictable, sometimes devastating, sometimes hilarious. Through soaring renditions of classics from Adele, Coldplay, Adam Lambert and Carole King, Atkinson invites audiences to discover that humour and heartbreak can coexist, and that even in loss, there is beauty, connection and love.
“Grief touches everyone, but we rarely talk about it.” says Atkinson. “This show creates a safe space where people can laugh, cry and recognise themselves in the story”.
Atkinson is joined on stage by acclaimed pianist Lainie Jamieson bringing depth, warmth and musical brilliance to the performance.
EVENT DETAILS
The Mezzanine – Plant 4 Bowden
- Sunday 22 February 3:30pm
- Tuesday 24 February 6:30pm
- Sunday 8 March 5:10pm
3 shows only
Auslan Interpretation
MA15+: themes of mental health, grief, cancer, death, occasional mild coarse language
