"Z.A.P.! Kunst, the Theater Gallery Performers Paul Herwig and Jennifer Ilse offered up a feat of comic inventiveness in their parody of performance art, following two hapless and supremely untalented German artists in their misbegotten attempts to create something beautiful. This was joyous and occasionally transcendent comedy, made all the more surprising by the fact that it seemed to be created entirely out of children's toys, cardboard, and frenetic movement. At the end of a performance, one got the sense that Herwig and Ilse could pack their entire act in a suitcase and toss it in back of one of those tiny European three-wheeled cars. Which would have been appropriate: After all, this play was likewise a miniature, absurd wonder."

- CITY PAGES, THE TOP TEN BEST THEATER OF THE TWIN CITIES - 2000 #6

"ZAP KUNST is a parody built on grand physical gestures and a terrifying energy... Writer performers Paul Herwig and Jennifer Ilse propel their story with such verve that when their characters meet at the Berlin wall they simply crash through it. Long scenes play with virtually no dialogue and an abundance of sight gags, resembling some expressionist silent comedy. All the while, Herwig & Ilse bring to their performances an endearing lack of guile. Even when Aufgehefferstadt and Zimerman's failed attempts to break into theatre cause them to abuse both household pets (in a frightening parody of "Tap Dogs") and Shakespeare (in a production titled "The Burgermeister of Dusseldorf") they remain eternal innocents, lost in their desire to be great artists. The pair fumbles repeatedly in one hilarious sequence after another until they discover performance art, "an art form for people who can't do anything else." Their resulting sketch involves God, flushing toilets, and awkward acrobatics in a virtuoso display of wretchedness that leads to an ecstatic, ridiculous moment of triumph. For a moment we believe that even bad art can elevate the human spirit."

- Max Sparber, Minneapolis City Pages, April 5th, 2000

"ZAP KUNST is a raucous lampoon of performance art, that anything goes hybrid of multimedia, multidisciplinary theatre that could include anything from movement to music to self-mutilation. The spoof is presented as the joint autobiography of "internationally unknown performance artists" Arthur Zimmerman and Zelda Aufgehefferstadt. We meet them first in heaven... and the notion that really bad artists go to paradise is the first big laugh of the evening. Arthur and Zelda are a cold war Romeo and Juliet, growing up in Bavaria as the children of artistically inclined farm families. Yearning to escape the stifling confines of rural life, they set off for East and West Berlin, meet and court through an exchange of notes tossed over the wall, and break it down in a spasm of creative passion... In a simultaneous brainstorm they invent an art form requiring no talent. They form a two-person "Art Depreciation Society" and present their loopy masterpiece "The Birth of the Universe," before an epilogue finally returns them to heaven... ZAP KUNST soars! ...Energetic and effortlessly graceful, except when they mean to be clumsy, the duo does for movement what Spike Jones' cowbell and gumshot renditions of popular songs did for music. When they move through the mechanical routine of their hated day jobs, their choreography is marvelously fast and precise, conjuring a boring restaurant and a dull office on the empty stage. And their ill-fated tryouts for several "Stomp"- style dance reviews puts the torch to that theatrical flavor-of-the-month. The show's climax, their demented "Birth of the Universe", takes the air out of pompous productions as they cavort to Gustav Mahler and Johann Strauss Jr. with beach balls representing the planets, setting astronomy back 2,000 years - Pricelessly funny! ...(Herwig & Ilse) are assured of their reward up above - and probably here on Earth, too."

- COLIN COVERT, Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 14th, 2000.