Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Foreign Girl
Anastasiya Ador
Genre: Comedy, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: theSpace On The Mile
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A witty exploration of cross-cultural identities and what being a global nomad means – the perils of living everywhere but belonging nowhere. That’s life when you’re continually on the move. One day you’re a citizen of the world. The next, a citizen of nowhere.
Review
“Travel the world and the seven seas”, intones Annie Lennox in Eurythmics iconic “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) which is playing as we squeeze into the intimate Space 3 at theSpace On The Mile for Anastasiya Ador’s Foreign Girl, an autobiographical look at the challenges of continually starting over in life and never quite understanding where you actually belong.
Gliding effortlessly onto the tight stage as the music booms out, Ador dances elegantly for her curious audience. Then the music stops. And so does she. That’s it, apparently. She’s hoping this very short performance will be one more piece in the jigsaw she’s trying to complete to win her Global Talent (GT) visa, basically a passport to anywhere for someone of East European descent who is looking to escape restrictions and tyranny in their homeland. But the demands of the GT visa go way beyond one dance, so she calls up her Indian based agent for more ideas.
That’s broadly the premise for what turns out to be an engaging fifty minute exploration of the perils of living everywhere but belonging nowhere. For that’s what life is like when you’re continually on the move. One day you’re a citizen of the world. The next, a citizen of nowhere.
Originally from Minsk, Belarus and with a Ukrainian/Belarusian heritage, Ador has literally travelled the said world and its seven seas in her quest for roots. Dressed in a red sports vest and shorts, with contrasting blue leggings, she’s an engaging storyteller, sharing glimpses of life on the road and the many and varied cultures into which she has had to squeeze her personality.
Slices of life are portrayed through a series of tightly scripted sketches, giving Ador the chance to further demonstrate her capabilities as a dancer, clown, raconteur and more besides. It becomes a bit like “tick performance genre bingo” as the show also had snatches of the immersive, interactive, absurd, surreal, comedic and just pure physical theatre.
But it was the denouement that took the biscuit or, to be more precise, the tea and a scone piled high with jam and cream, all to the rousing strains of “God Save The King”, the humour lying therein being particularly appreciated by the audience of many nationalities, to whom this show will particularly appeal. Priceless.
This is a show that comes from the heart. You get that from the emotion in her voice as much as from the words she’s using, the dance she’s performing or the character she’s playing. It’s a story of vision, ambition, determination and the refusal to take “no” for an answer. One of ingenuity, a willingness to keep the mind open and the brain whirring until you get what you want, in spite of almost everyone else, rather than because of them.
And I was only got to review this thing by accident. Beavering away in the lobby of the venue a couple of days back, I couldn’t help but “earwig” the conversation going on at the other seats on my table between Ador and her two strong support team. The general whinge was about the two reviewers that had booked to review but hadn’t showed up. With the show only running until 16th August, Ador was desperate for any gullible idiot attached to a reviewing outfit to rock up and take a look.
So, it was pure luck that I found a show that makes you think at the same time as it entertains. It comes highly recommended, so why not make a bee-line for it and help this theatrical nomad achieve her life’s ambition, the Global Talent visa.
