Lots of solo-performance shows are personal in nature. People like to talk about what they know. But not as many of these solo shows go the extra step and find a universal human artistic thread. That's the way I feel about the thought-provoking, funny and tender "No Stranger Than Home," in which world traveler Katherine Glover shines new light on what it's like to navigate through a multicultural world.
Beginning her show with a moving vignette set in El Salvador, one of several countries that the globetrotting Glover has visited, she sets the stage for a fluidly paced experience that's half travelogue and half musing on what it's like to be a "rootless" American in a solidly demarcated cultural world. It's never been easy for Glover to define what "home" means, even in childhood, when as a child of divorce she split her time between an earthy upbringing in St. Paul, Minn., and a more uptight home life on the swanky California coast.
Her first major trip out of the U.S. was to a college-sponsored-study stint in Berlin, where she first confronted the idea of "culture shock" -- had it pounded into her, more like it -- and started asking some of the questions that she would consider as she indulged in the wanderlust of her 20s: Is there a distinctly defined American culture? What are her roots?
Glover has a kind, quiet delivery and a wry sense of humor. (At one point, in East Africa, she mocked the other white women who wore their head in braids in imitation of the local custom, then slyly reveals that she'd already taken her own braids out.) She never mugs for the audience. Instead, in those rare moments when she flairs dramatically onstage -- when she does a little dance, for example, after telling a story about visiting a witch doctor -- it feels fresh and genuine. A favorite moment of mine is when she relates what it was like to bump into a fellow American expatriot woman in Nicaragua -- and they both "compete" for the title of most assimilated American.
"No Stranger Than Home" is not a flashy show, but it's heartfelt. Most important, Glover textures the show with threads of multicultural nuance. This is more than just a riff on the so-called "Ugly American" abroad. After all, she IS an American, and her own longing for a sense of identity is a lot more complex than simply poking fun at stereotypes.
Playing: 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. today (March 28), 7 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. March 6, Dianna's South, 726 N. Fulton St. Cost: $7. Rating: PG-13.
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