(3 / 5)
Stan to a millennial is likely to produce memories of Eminem and Dido in the noughties with their hummable, sad tune. The video is about an obsessive fan and where this obsession can lead to in the darkest of places.
Fast forward in time and the word Stan now means to be a fan of something, amongst the youth. Everyone has something, whether it’s a person, place, thing. And Alexis Sakellaris takes this concept and in turn provides a story of finding oneself and discovering ones sexuality in an unusual place. When Sakellaris moves from New York with their family to rural Germany, they find solace in divas and their music, and, in turn, this leads them to friendship and self discovery.
A Stan Is Born firstly takes its name from the film. This is where the comparison ends but the reference aims to draw in one of the many famous stars that they “stan” but also in a hint to the plot later – this is how Sakellaris discovers their voice (in more ways than one) and pushes their trajectory into the arts. With unique songs created and performed by Sakellaris, their story is told through a verbal narrative, original and satirical songs sung and played on the piano and a healthy dose of audience interaction. Sakellaris’s engagement is sincere and friendly, often moving them to being somewhat off-piste but with this, we are definitely getting something unique to other audiences.
The songs are fun and enjoyable but lacked a little variety. While all original and different in concept, there was not really one that I came away with as an ear worm and they slightly felt similar to one another. The blurb for this show notes as a “gay Bo Burnham” but I felt this was slightly misleading as a comparison – Burnham’s songs are all entirely different in delivery and have a often taboo sense to them; this wasn’t the intention with Sakellaris’s songs and it wouldn’t be fitting if it was. It feels as if it would be all too easy to compare this to Bo Burnham as a vague concept, like one women plays at Fringe are all compared to Fleabag.
Their story in itself is very endearing and Sakellaris does well to translate this to us in an honest and funny way, without detracting from the intention. We get an overview, with them swapping into multiple languages and characters, moving levels and letting down their actual hair to represent certain Divas, which all gives us enough to understand a life we very likely cannot relate to as it is so original. But there did feel a bit of nervousness about Sakellaris and this unfortunately slightly fed through their performance.
A Stan Is Born is a heartfelt, unique storytelling piece of theatre, with one of a kind music and a one of a kind tale. It just felt that Sakellaris needed a bit more confidence in this to deliver it.
