The moody and impulsive international poet Paulina Lenoir, who speaks with an exotically and mysterious Eastern-European accent, performs a weird and wacky burlesque and clowning show, with experimental and abstract elements of comedic relief that may not be to everyone’s liking. It’s a bit sexy, a bit sweet and a bit humorous, as she breaks down her life into various acts, such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, menopause and the ultimate finale – death. There isn’t much of a storyline to Puella Eterna, and instead these life ‘acts’ provide the faint outline for the show, which could use a bit more direction to provide consistency for an audience that is watching disparate actions like simulating self-pleasure whilst pumping up a genitally-positioned balloon, smashing raw eggs, and audacious interpretive dance moves to loudly beating drums. A comedic highlight that has the audience in stitches is the performer’s successfully bizarre combination of her face infused into that of a baby doll which she then controls as an adorable and also disconcertingly hilarious puppet. This is brilliantly executed, showing off Paulina’s ability to master a comedic routine, though there just wasn’t quite enough else within the show to back this routine up. Paulina’s outfits are fabulous and flirty burlesque costumes, with long slinky satin gloves, floor-length gowns, fiery-red corsets and voluminous tulle sleeves, and a Gaga-esque tulle bow and massive towering wig covered in roses as headwear. She also cleverly interweaves these outfits into her routine, with sexy and comedic stripping utilised as audience entertainment, while providing a slick combination of sultry burlesque and theatrical clowning. Throughout the Puella Eterna, Paulina utilises a mixture of accompanying light jazz background music to emphasise the cabaret performance elements, alongside strange sound effects like roaring big cats for comedic effect, and what sounds like nature-documentary voice overs to provide context for some scenes. Unfortunately, there were many moments where it didn’t quite all come together and small vignette acts just didn’t quite draw the audience into laughter. It felt like Paulina wasn’t 100% on her game and unfortunately there was a bit of wobbling and incohesive sound glitches, although it must be noted that this show was the sound tech and Paulina’s first time working together, so improvement will come with greater familiarity. The lack of story to guide the show didn’t help with the moments of disjointedness. If she was performing as the mythological child-god ‘Puella Aeterna’ who is an eternally young woman who remains attached to the idealised image of childhood and adolescence (from a quick Google search), then this may need to be interwoven into more of the show to provide the audience with more context and therefore understanding of the different routines. Paulina is a talented performer and there are marvellous moments of comedy and burlesque brilliance in Puella Eterna, but it is marred by a lack of narrative-based cohesion and useful context that can at times leave the audience bewildered.