Queer Surrealist Solo Show QFWFQ Inspired By Italo Calvino To Open At The Los Angeles LGBT Center
QFWFQ opens at the Los Angeles LGBT Center on June 8th and runs until June 28th as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
By: A.A. Cristi May. 01, 2025
Gregory Nussen (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Phoenix Theatre Company) returns to the stage this June after a six year hiatus with QFWFQ, a surrealist solo show structurally based off of the 1979 postmodern novel If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.
A labyrinthine, surrealist journey that touches on the politics of gender, music, international relations and storytelling itself, QFWFQ is a show that never begins nor ends. You're confused. So are we.
QFWFQ is a solo performance without a fourth wall. Taking its nonsensical title from the name of Calvino's ageless, timeless main character of the bulk of the collection The Cosmicomics, QFWFQ is an adaptation of themes and structure, in a similar manner that Charlie Kaufman once adapted the non-fiction The Orchid Thief into Adaptation. In place of much of the hard plot points of Calvino's novel, QFWFQ thematically links stories from the performer's life, all of which deal with questions of political and artistic permission. Touching on architectural marvels, improvised jazz concertos, gender dynamics and dealing with mental health struggles inside a Zionist summer camp, QFWFQ is a meditation on the politics of storytelling, showing that the artist's assumption that stories remain in silo is a fallible one, and that all of our stories necessarily connect through tissue both invisible and visible.
Gregory Nussen (they/he) is a multidisciplinary artist who has performed off-Broadway, internationally and across Los Angeles and New York stages. They originated the role of Christopher in the regional premiere of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Phoenix Theatre Company. A contributing critic to Deadline, Backstage and Slant Magazine, they are a New York Film Critics Circle award winner. AEA, SAG-AFTRA.
MFA: Columbia. MA: NYU, BA: Emerson.
More at gregnussen.com
QFWFQ opens at the Los Angeles LGBT Center on June 8th and runs until June 28th as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
06/08: 6:15
06/10: 9:45
06/15: 2:15
06/20: 8:00
06/21: 4:00
06/24: 9:45
06/28: 9:45
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