Sille-Kadri Simer steps back into the spotlight with her newest show, Happy Condolences, a characteristically breezy-but-intimate look at life, death, and all the sticky bits in between. I caught a preview version of her English-language version of the show before the Fringe began, which she happily pointed out was still a work in progress. With the first Estonian-language show coming up on 30 August, it seemed worth dropping in a preview review and circling back around when the full English-language shows begin during the last week of the Tallinn Fringe in September.
It’s been a big year for Simer and her opener Tatiana Akopova, two of the founders of Pussy Jam Comedy, and they’re here to fill us in on the details: depressing, delightful, and unexpectedly liberating. Akopova’s classic deadpan is back in action as divorce gives fresh perspective on her past comedy about her relationship: a new start isn’t always easy, but you can’t help but cheer her on as she looks back on what went wrong.
These themes of reflection, change, and the hard work of recovering from our younger selves set the mood elegantly for Simer’s own tragicomic reassessment of her own life in the faces of death. As mentioned above, this was a preview show, so I’m not sure how many elements of the staging and structure will carry over into the full show, but Simer’s snap and vulnerability were accounted for, as well as excellent use of staging, space, props, and audiovisual components. Her use of comedy as a craft was in full effect, allowing us to witness and participate in the process of testing, assessing, and reconstructing her show and her perspective on her recent and deeper past.
She kicked off with crowd work and a bit of ranting, sassing chatty audience members and digging deeper when she sensed something fishy. Across the arcs of her storytelling, her tone became melancholy and filthy in turns, reflecting on the sins of our youth and how they shape us into adults, and the sins of our adulthood and how they shape our legacy. Very little is held sacred, except for the essential, core humanity of each person. Working within the small stage of Heldeke!, her use of table, chair, props, and paper were cleverly used to define and integrate those storytelling arcs, though even if those don’t remain in the full version, the way grief has reframed her narrative will linger.
Sille-Kadri Simer’s Estonian-language show can be seen at Ratas&Kohv on Saturday 30 August at 2000 and Heldeke! on Thursday 11 September at 2100. Her English-language show will run on the 16th and 18th of September at 2100. The full 2025 Tallinn Fringe Festival program can be found here.
Author: Laurie
Laurie likes alliteration, ambiance, and lists with three things.
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