Cheeky Zippy Violette
★★★★☆ A whirlwind
Scottish Storytelling Centre: Thurs 4 – Sun 7 June 2026
Review by Sophie Good
Belgian theatre company Théâtre des 4 Mains present a zany energetic coupe de force with Cheeky Zippy Violette, a one person show which is as silly and entertaining as it is a poignant study of grief.
Violette (Gwladys Lefeuvre) bursts onto the stage with a water gun and demands immediate applause from the audience at the Scottish Storytelling Centre as part of the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. She is definitely cheeky and zippy, but she is funny, enigmatic and imaginative too.
Gwladys Lefeuvre in Cheeky Zippy Violette. Pic: Ger Spendel.
Violette is engaged in a very playful world, and at the same time is navigating the death of her grandpa (who was put to sleep in a box and sent on a rocket to the moon no less). She asks an audience member to write a letter to him, which she dictates comedically fast. In fact she asks a lot of the audience; including a frequent request for £1,000 for enough stamps to send her letter to the moon.
Part storyteller, part object artist and part stand-up comedian; there is never a dull moment in Lefeuvre’s 55 minute show, written with director Maximilien Delmelle. What fun must have been had in the rehearsal room.
tackling a big topic
The highlights are her audience interactions including the drawn out ‘one hour’ timer a grown up is asked to start whilst her extremely bizarre mini gherkin-based dinner is in the oven. Then boredom hits, her dinner burns and on it goes: A cycle of silly stories and peril and adventure.
It’s wrapped up in a wider theme of trying to get to her grandpa, and how that might be where other grandpa and grans have gone too. It’s a neat way of tackling a big topic; and how much the younger audience grasp of this would entirely depend on the individual. And if that’s not a thing they relate to, there’s still tremendous amounts of daftness and fun.
Gwladys Lefeuvre in Cheeky Zippy Violette. Pic: Ger Spendel.
This is actually a word-based show – somewhat unusually amongst a sea of physical theatre aimed at this age range – so it might suit some young audience members to have things explained. And for a Belgian company presenting a version presumably translated into English (did she really call those mini gherkins ‘Extra-terrestrial willies’!) they do it really well, even ensuring the odd Scottish-ism works it’s way in there.
whirlwind of an imagination
Our young reviewer enjoyed this show tremendously; finding the quirky character and her energetic rattling through one-liners and scenarios very entertaining. The only disappointment was finding out that Violette was in fact hiding upstairs in her attic as a punishment from her mother.
If it is perhaps a little deflating to bring it back to the adult world and its rules, that is only because Violette takes you into hers so enticingly and so completely that it’s hard to imagine anyone could ever contain her and her whirlwind of an imagination.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High St, EH1 1SR..
Thurs 4 – Sun 7 June 2026
Thurs: 10.15am, 1.15pm; Fri: 9.45am, 3.30pm; Sat: 12 noon, 3.30pm, Sun: 12noon.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Théâtre des 4 Mains website: theatre4mains.be.
Gwladys Lefeuvre in Cheeky Zippy Violette. Pic: Ger Spendel.
ENDS
