Theater & Broadway

2024 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Perfect Immigrant’ by Sam Yakura (5 stars)

2024 Capital Fringe Review: 'The Perfect Immigrant' by Sam Yakura (5 stars)What a fascinating narrative thread: exploring immigration in terms of emigration from one’s home country and emigration from one’s family. In Sam Yakura’s comedy The Perfect Immigrant, under Charlotte La Nasa’s direction and in conjunction with Irish arts organization Solas Nua, protagonist Levi, played by Joshua Olujuide, departs from Nigeria for his master’s program and a new career in Dublin, Ireland. The story blends spoken prose, comedic moments, and soul-baring from a deeply likable and captivating solo performer.

And it’s hard to get a one-man show right — it’s hard to keep it informative, engaging, and enjoyable the whole time. But what helps The Perfect Immigrant succeed is its clear narrative thread. The main character shows us what his narrative goals are at the start: unpacking the cultural changes and changes to his relationship with his parents he’s experiencing in Dublin, and he sticks with those ideas and their consequences through the rest of the narrative to create a satisfying narrative arc. Lights and projections from Hailey LaRoe, especially those marking Levi’s poetry around his experience, also add to the show’s overall cohesion.

2024 Capital Fringe Review: 'The Perfect Immigrant' by Sam Yakura (5 stars)The show could do with a little less telling and more showing — maybe less recounting of events and more introspective conversation about them — but the connection the show makes between the immigrant experience and the universal experience of growing up and making one’s own way makes this show relevant regardless of whether or not you may be a geographic immigrant. Showing as opposed to telling would also enable us to get to know Levi even more beyond simply how he acted in various new situations. We can only learn so much from watching someone: getting inside their head is a whole nother thing.

Further, on the “show vs. tell” point — I am not going to get in the way of the catharsis of writing or hearing immigrant stories for those on the creative team or in the audience. Obviously, even just hearing elements of a story you’ve lived yourself recounted in media is a beautiful thing and one we don’t get enough of. I’m not an immigrant myself, and I know this show was not necessarily “for me,” but as a young adult who moved out in the last few years, this show built a bridge to help me better understand the immigrant experience. Still, I think that perhaps even more insight could be gleaned from even more of an abstract, poetic approach to talking about this story to truly delve into some of the ideas at play here, not merely to provide commentary on the show’s narrative’s events.

This show is one of the most engaging and insightful I’ve seen at this year’s Fringe, thanks to its connection of the immigrant and young adult experiences — it’s wonderful to see new elaborations on narratives that are familiar for some and new for others.

2024 Capital Fringe Review: 'The Perfect Immigrant' by Sam Yakura (5 stars)

 

Running Time: 60 minutes
Genre: Solo/Comedy
Dates and Times:

Venue: Laughter, 1150 Connecticut Avenue NW
More Info and Tickets: The Perfect Immigrant

The complete 2024 Capital Fringe Festival schedule is online here.


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