QFWFQ centres the second person, you, in Gregory Nussen’s titular role. QFWFQ is not an acronym, or the result of a smashed face on a keyboard, but a name, pronounced ‘kif-whifk’ drawn from Calvino’s works. Nussen is Qfwfq, the narrator of the show, as they stop and start, trying to find the right story to tell. The story that is eventually told across the show, is urgent, vital and raw.
After some light-hearted introductions with the audience, Nussen’s Qfwfq poetically recounts a story set in Helsinki. With tenderness in their voice evoking sentimentality, Nussen tells of a young man in the snowy city who stumbles upon a church in a forest. Inside, the most beautiful piano playing is heard until…
Nussen jitters and stutters right as the story reaches an emotional beat. It is the first real tell that this show will extend to something more than recounting stories. With more Brechtian breaking, Nussen builds the show in front of the audience. This time with a phone call to the Institute for the Posterity of Everything. The same happens with the next story, this time at a Los Angeles art exhibition. Again, Nussen tells a story that reaches for some version of the truth but dances around what they actually want to say.
