The first official show of the Tallinn Fringe kicked off at Heldeke! on 18 August with Erica Jean‘s Mistranslated, a comedy show that is, at its heart, a love story to language. With only two shows in Tallinn this festival, it’s worth taking the chance to see her tonight – particularly those of us who live, work, and love in languages beyond our native tongues.
Descending into the basement theatre on a clear late-summer evening, we’re greeted by the performer taking tickets at the door, backed by a playlist that foreshadows the show: upbeat, multilingual, and showing off a range of influences. The crowd started arriving early for the inaugural Fringe show, and continued to fill the room through the five-minute warning, which was met by a promising cheer – if they’re making noise early, it’s going to be an actively-participating audience.
This absolutely proved true from the first moments, as Jean introduces herself and sets the crowd up for what’s to come: a joyful recontextualisation of how we understand language-learning, and the opportunity to share our own cross-cultural misfires. Structured to combine crowd work and storytelling, the show makes excellent use of Jean’s rhythm and manner of speaking, with moderately-paced tales suddenly sped up into spitfire pauseless monologues or rapidly-snapped asides. The goal, she explains, is to do stand-up in as many languages as she can – though she does illustrate that language acquisition can have a range of motivations, both noble and bizarre.
Jean’s comedy delights in setting up expectations only to smash them a moment later, challenging the audience to do the same. Her passion for the polyglot lifestyle embraces the spectrum of success and failure – or, as she points out, just taking a really long break. Her travels around the world, probably definitely not funded by the CIA, are given charming life through her attempts and exhortations to learn what’s local – or at least try to learn before you go, even if you end up somewhere else entirely. Embrace making mistakes, and if all else fails, there’s always donating blood.
Erica Jean’s Mistranslated can be seen for the second and final show at 1900 tonight, 19 August, at Heldeke! The Tallinn Fringe Festival is now in full swing: check out the full program to see what else is in store.
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Author: Laurie
Laurie likes alliteration, ambiance, and lists with three things.
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