When we hear about Albania in the news, it’s typically in the context of immigration and smuggling gangs. In her autobiographical one-woman show, Alex Reynolds offers another view, describing the colour and texture and character of the country of her ancestors. Except, the trouble is, it’s not really her nation to explore.
In the Land of Eagles grapples with the complexity of being a third-generation immigrant, not one but two steps removed from the heritage that gave Reynolds her thick, dark hair and tall stature. Remembering her spiky relationship with her late Albanian grandpa, the writer-performer doesn’t shy away from her teenage disinterest in where he came from. That is, until the pair go back to Albania together and she learns about the richness and struggle of his homeland.
Reynolds is a wonderful narrator – warm, funny, animated. In front of stacks of clear plastic boxes filled with her grandpa’s belongings she brings their journey to vivid life, effortlessly evoking the various people they encounter along the way. But what elevates this from an accomplished piece of storytelling to something more affecting is its gut-punching rug pull, casting everything we’ve seen and heard in a new, more complicated light.
In the Land of Eagles, Pleasance Courtyard, until Aug 25 (not 13), 3pm