Despite seeing a preview of this show, Passport Expired: Confessions of an Immigrant brought unexpected flourish to the stage at Ratas&Kohv on 21 August. Hurtling past several milestones, planned and otherwise, has put Isidora Salcedo in a reflective mood as she traces back over the routes that have brought her here, there, and around the world with the next dangling deadline ahead.
Olga Loitsenko opened the evening with giddy, inquisitive crowd work and observational insights, pulling out unexpected answers from the far-flung audience who’d gathered here. From cartographical concerns to advice against hauntings, the spooky journey brought to the stage casual weirdgirl Salcedo, whose own globetrotting adventures started early, resulting in a patchwork pattern of life in-between places. As she navigates becoming unstuck in expectations, if not time, Salcedo has developed her own set of rules for how to fake it till you make it in adulthood, using props, crowd work, and anecdotes to narrate her attempts at understanding what it means to “make yourself at home”.
Based on the preview, I’d personally rated it as “not a lot of swears, but probably a multilingual 13-year-old should take this as a cautionary tale”. This could perhaps be more accurately developed for the final show with “if their first and second languages aren’t English.” Scales of propriety are easily tipped and rebalanced as Salcedo handles the grotesque, the interesting, and the romantic across cultural divides in the pursuit of something more. From her own childhood as a tiny tyrant through to educational and occupational hazards, she offers advice, lessons, and deadpan absurdity for anyone who’s applied for a visa.
Passport Expired: Confessions of an Immigrant will be at Ratas&Kohv two more times this Fringe, on Saturday 23 and Thursday 28 August at 1900. Olga Loitsenko brings members of Green Light Comedy in for Dating Roulette: The Improvised Dating Show, at Heldeke! on 25 August and Ratas&Kohv on 11 September. The full 2025 Tallinn Fringe Festival schedule can be found here.
Author: Laurie
Laurie likes alliteration, ambiance, and lists with three things.
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