Zoë Jensen returns to the Australian stage after her Berlin sabbatical with the first show from new Melbourne theatre collective Primitive Streak, Zoe’s Killer Instinct.
Showcasing a virtuosic, one-woman performance, this unhinged, razor-sharp satire features original music inspired by vaudeville and Weimar – Zoe’s Killer Instinct plays the Old Fitz Theatre in a world premiere season from 25 – 30 August.
The origin of this surreal story began in 2020, when Zoë inexplicably found a random bag of knives in a park at night. As a woman of limited stature (five-foot-one (and-a-half)), she felt, for the first time in her life, that she could defend herself if threatened.
She would recall the experience years later, on the grimy streets of Berlin, during the bleak European midwinter. With a valuable cultural distance from Australia’s pervasive epidemic of male-on-female violence, the idea of Zoe’s Killer Instinct was born.
The show follows a fictionalised Zoë, a disillusioned, down-on-her-luck desperado with dreams of stardom. Fed up with failure and Australia’s endless cycle of femicide, Zoë flips the script and starts to murder strange men, stealing their inherited power to become a showbiz success.
So begins a story that asks what you would sacrifice for your dreams. A story about victims who victimise. A story about the shadowy voices of authority that direct our fate from the wings. It’s Chicago meets Sunset Boulevard meets Monster. All set to an intoxicating original score by Travis Hennessy and bursting with showstoppers.
“It took running around Berlin like a wild thing for this show to come pouring out of me. Now I’m bringing it home. It’s my mad scream of protest,” said Zoë Jensen.
Primitive Streak is a theatre collective based in Melbourne. Formed in 2026 by wife-and-husband duo Zoë Jensen and Michael McStay, who first met as NIDA Acting students (class of 2013), the collective is driven by a desire to create original Australian work that is intellectually rigorous, philosophically eclectic, epic in theme, and deeply human, imagining theatre and cabaret as a liminal space both sacred and profane.
Originally from Lutruwita/Tasmania, Zoë Jensen has worked across theatre, film, and television since graduating NIDA’s Acting/Music Theatre stream. Her screen credits include An Alien in Sydney, Mate, and On the Ropes. Her stage credits include Three Sisters, Hush, and Darwin’s Reptilia.
Zoë is known for developing new Australian work, with a particular interest in bold, original voices and collaborative processes. She is a recipient of the Bell Shakespeare Regional Scholarship and the NIDA Shakespeare Acting Prize.
Michael McStay is an Australian writer, actor, musician, and director raised on Bpangerang country, living in Naarm/Melbourne. Michael has performed in shows for Belvoir, Sport for Jove, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, KXT, Old 505, Theatreworks, Mudlark Theatre, and 7-On.
His written work has been published in Island Magazine and Roi Fainéant, and he has been longlisted for the Varnish Prize for Fiction and the Furphy Literary award. He has had six major plays produced in Sydney.
Zoe’s Killer Instinct
Old Fitz Theatre, 129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo (Sydney)
Season: 25 – 30 August 2026
Information and Bookings: www.oldfitztheatre.com.au
Following the Sydney season, Zoe’s Killer Instinct will be presented at the Junction Arts Festival, Launceston (18 – 19 September), and Melbourne Fringe (5 – 11 October).
Image: Zoë Jensen stars in Zoe’s Killer Instinct – photo by Jens Radda