Sari to Skin is local actor/poet Neelam Patel‘s third solo show, currently running at the spartan Apothecary in this year’s Capital Fringe Festival. The tastefully staged production is without a clear storyline. Rather, it is set as a series of biographical poems and monologues through which Patel communicates her struggles with her identity as someone who is “too Indian to be American, and too American to be Indian.”

Patel’s writing is lucid and her delivery simple, only augmented with the occasional lighting change or brief dance. In a post-play Q&A session, Patel informed her audience that all of the stories are 100 percent true. While the material is presented in the context of her Indian heritage, much of it articulates struggles and experiences to which anyone who grew up in this country can relate, whether it be an awkward adolescence, or young lust transforming into young love.

If the play has a weakness, it is that the search for identity has become an overused theme in contemporary South Asian art, and therefore the audience is not exposed to much that is new. But a piece does not have to be novel in order to be good, and Sari to Skin is a solid effort.

Sari to Skin runs through July 25. Full schedule and ticket information is available here.