Jana Levitina: “To Slav or Not To Slav”

Tallinn Fringe 2024 is a showcase of women on the local comedy circuit, many breaking into solo shows for the first time. Jana Levitina joins this year’s crop with To Slav or Not To Slav, with dates in August at Mouthy Pop-up at Telliskivi’s Kopli Couture. Kopli Couture is one of the more interesting gems of mixed-use venues in Tallinn—well-curated vintage fashion, a stylish bar, and, on certain nights throughout the year and during Fringe, a stage for stand-ups (and the occasional DJ). 

Opening the evening, we had the return of Evil Sasha, who’s based in Lithuania but swings through the rest of the Baltics periodically to remind us how to laugh: darkly. In her brief set, she proved finely attuned to the audience, adapting one-liners into full observations, and quipping away when needed—an excellent opener for Levitina.

Levitina’s set opened strong, her concept providing structure to a fast-paced show heavy on insinuations and absolutely in love with language. Levitina explores code- and context-switching as a “Rustonian” while growing up locally and traveling globally as an adult. She’s a fan of wordplay in various languages and using accents to make a point, and she has a quick wit that provides what you might call a treatise on “Slav-ishness”. Her physical style was engaged if distracted, though her callbacks suggested she wasn’t as spacey as she may have seemed. Beyond the feast of language, her stage presence was unashamed of costumes, props, and movement.

As befitting the show’s title, Levitina’s theatricality directly quotes Shakespeare at the beginning and brings some subtextual tragedy to the textual comedy. After all, code-switching is necessary to move between worlds, and the reasons we slip between one and another aren’t always simple or benign. For a first solo show, it has its rough edges, but even those make sense with the right tracksuit. 

To Slav or Not To Slav can also be caught at HUNGR in September, if you miss the Mouthy Pop-Up. Evil Sasha can be seen at “Bi-conic: A Bisexual Extravaganza” 29-31 August in Winkel. The full Fringe program, with solo and group comedy shows throughout, can be found here.

Author: Laurie