one4review | On 17, Aug 2026

The character Zoe Wohlfeld plays on stage is a petulant child, making demands of the audience and then reneging, only to demand again with additional clauses. She causes havoc and disowns responsibility, and wails when she doesn’t like the outcome. Despite, or perhaps because of, the heartwarming animated introduction, the opposite of a connection between Zoe and the audience is formed, and so the show is performed under the spectre of an audience who might cease to co-operate, and perhaps worse, bite back (as this one did, though gently).

Technically, the show is very well put together. It’s got a through-line to which it sticks and makes full use, there’s a variety of comedic modes employed, and Ms Wohlfeld herself is fully and confidently committed to the show. She has to be: any sign of weakness would break it. It’s listed under sub-genre ‘clown’, and we definitely get that, complete with make-up.

But the character on stage seems designed to repell, and it’s really difficult to see thought this to the quality. Two other things perhaps don’t help: the show times, and setting the tone. For the first, perhaps a more lubricated and later audience might respond differently. For the second, the initial animated introduction suggested a tone completely at odds with the main body of the show (though the drawings were lovely), so we weren’t entirely prepared for what would follow.

It’s very hard to award stars to this show. Wohlfeld does an excellent job of playing an utterly repellent character, and she does manage to stay on the very precipice of alienating the audience, without tipping over. The blurb does warn us ‘it’s gonna be a rough one’ and it is indeed.

Reviewed by Laura
Underbelly Cowgate
Until 30th (not 17th)