Electra Kolb’s Father, Away She Goes arrives at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a bold and caustic new tragicomedy, exploring just how far someone will go to achieve their dreams. At its centre is Sarah Jones, a compelling and deeply unsettling anti-heroine navigating ambition, identity and survival at any cost.
Rejected from institutions and cast out from her family home, Sarah spirals through a chaotic world of parties, lies and fractured relationships. As she reinvents herself again and again, her relentless drive begins to tip into darker territory, culminating in a gripping and devastating turn.
Originally written and performed when Kolb was just 17, the play offers a fearless interrogation of female ambition and the cultural discomfort it still provokes. Through Sarah’s story, it questions why ruthlessness is celebrated in men yet condemned in women, presenting a character who refuses to shrink herself to fit expectations.
Kolb describes the piece as a reflection of systemic pressures rather than redemption, saying, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game. The system creates the monster – I just put her on stage.”
Unflinching and provocative, Father, Away She Goes is a striking portrait of ambition and consequence, challenging audiences to reconsider power, gender and the cost of success.
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Father, Away She Goes runs at Zoo (Playground 1) from 7 – 30 August at 16:30. Tickets are on sale here
