Post by Kelly White

The lesson here? Stick with Jeb Kreager, who takes on the role of an American amateur anthropologist, for a good twenty minutes before this one really sinks in. Euro is all over the place from beginning to end, but it’s a sly riot that you’ll want to follow if only to see if it ever does click into place. Our narrator transports us to a typical Slovakian household, where intense rounds of foreign language leave the audience scratching their heads.

Rightly so, as our anthropologist points out how uselessly we wonder and try to decode the body language of the actors, as though we could somehow understand the scene. Once the crowd is in on the joke, the baritone-voiced Kreager pauses the stage antics every so often, bringing the actors to a comedic standstill, enabling him to translate the Slovakian words and customs that are thrust at us. Kreager is a delightful force, but it’s Sarah Sanford who gathers the crowd into her palm. She plays the slight, curly-mopped niece of the Slovakian family and spends most of the performance contorting her body, rivetingly convulsing, and maintaining shell-shocked facial expressions.

Keep your eyes on her the entire time and you’ll make it over the deliberate jump from cultural cliff to cultural cliff.

The European Lesson at Black Box Theater next to Festival Bar, August 29th - September 6
626 North 5th Street, Philadelphia PA 19122
www.livearts-fringe.org

The European Lesson @ Philly Fringe
www.pafringe.com/2008/details.cfm?id=2885