CARLTON, VIC. — A surrealist solo show that neither begins nor ends. Winner: Best Solo Show at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe.
The unpronounceable name is not a mistake but an acknowledgement of Calvino’s playful, postmodern style, where reality and fantasy drift and boundaries are distorted.
Nussen adopted the persona of QFWFQ (pronounced kif-whifk), a character from Calvino’s stories who acts as an unreliable, stop-and-start narrator trying to piece together a script while chatting with and involving the audience.
The narrative shifted between whimsical storytelling (such as a pianist in a snowy Helsinki church) and deeply personal, heavy reflections on growing up queer and Jewish, geopolitical conflicts (including Gaza and the 1948 displacement of Palestinians), and the power of art.
Critics described it as word-drunk, absurdly funny, intellectually mischievous, and emotionally tender, balancing a fractured, chaotic structure with razor-sharp theatrical precision.
Winner of Best Solo Show and the Sydney Fringe Exchange Award at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe, with an additional four nominations, including BroadwayWorld LA for Best Solo Show.
It was a surrealist labyrinth that stretches time and space. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller, this razor-sharp, absurdly funny and deeply personal show breaks all genres and has no fourth wall.
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