Hannah Hamilton
How attached are you to your guts? This show sees Hendrik Quast relive the removal of a bowel inflammation that has materialised itself as a puppet. This a show for those with a dark, dry sense of humour and a strong stomach, that sees the artist reenact the intimate experience of being at the doctors and getting ‘cured’.
The performance calls into question what parts of us are tied to our creatvity. Quast has lived with his illness a long time, and he feels somewhat conflicted about life without it. His right hand, the personification of his inflammation, queries everything dolefully as he sheepishly looks at the audience. The performer is split between two acts, that of the peculiar ventriloquist and that of the ordinary person.
The show takes place in a doctor’s waiting room, historically an uncomfortable place to be. It sees the audience members as patients waiting to be seen and we hear the dialogue of Quast and his right hand as they bicker about what is about to happen. The puppet is, naturally, very comfortable with bodily functions, but Quast somewhat less so.
It’s a difficult topic to be candid about in polite society, but as anyone with a bowel disease knows, it becomes a huge part of your life. Quast makes glancing eye contact with the audience, this subject is supposed to be private and yet, this is a stage and he is a performer. It’s an effective metaphor for the feeling of being a patient, wherein everyone feels partial to your embarassment and personal information.
There’s something to be said for the indignity of any examination or procedure that takes place in the bowels, it’s a very vulnerable position to be in as a patient. Quast makes this vulnerability close and tangible to the audience, as we watch ‘Dr Finga’, another puppet, give Quast a rectal examination, and then prescribe an enema.
Spill Your Guts focuses on Quast’s stream of consciousness as he worries about what to do with the enema, and the audience is called in to help the procedure and preserve the patient’s dignity. The nervous energy turns to anger and outburst. A familiar feeling for any patient, as embarassment turns to frustration. It’s an interesting exploration of the emotional state of a patient through creative expression.
Quast is a talented ventriloquist dealing with a sensitive topic. The show favoured spectacle of procedure over storytelling and the audience involvement felt somewhat uncomfortable. It also featured an abrupt tonal shift, ending with a rendition of Frozen’s ‘Let it Go’ but reskinned as ‘Let it Sh*t’.
Overall, Spill Your Guts deals with an interesting and intimate topic, conveying the patient’s experience through this externalised dialogue, but the conclusion felt somewhat incoherent with the rest of the show. The loss of the disease as a loss of creative spark and identity is only briefly explored before it is resolved.
It was an interesting premise that didn’t quite get where it was trying to go. It might be a deeply cathartic experience for anyone who has ever suffered a bowel disease, however, and definitely had moments of intrigue and comedy. A truly Fringe show, that you will think about for days after.
Recommended drink: Anything that isn’t brown or thick.
Performances of Spill Your Guts have now concluded at EdFringe 2026.
Salvador Kent
Issy Cory
Isobel Jacob
