Philly Fringe 2018: Kylie Westerbeck's 'Peg!'

Westerbeck, a Rowan University senior, acted in EgoPo Classic Theatre's Lydie Breeze Trilogy and The Women. Here, she embodies the hyperactive pixie Peg! right down to the exclamation point, which she added to her birth certificate (though it might not be legal).

She dresses like an un-self-conscious child: pigtails, pink striped shirt, bright blue skirt, pink leggings, and red boots, with a multicolored fanny pack. Is that glitter in her eyebrows?

Minnesota nice

Peg! connects with the audience immediately, following a manic warmup to a medley of upbeat songs with a slideshow made with "images off the Google." She also narrates, exclaiming her love of Costco and a certain worker there, using a hairbrush as a microphone.

Peg! zooms like a kid on Christmas morning, zipping from one topic to another. She relates a nightmare, shares the contents of her fanny pack, recites a list of things she finds sexy, plays a video of meeting strangers in Rittenhouse Square... never a dull moment.

It sounds like nothing, but it's ridiculously clever and irreverent and I laughed my ass off, shedding shed tears of laughter. And Westerbeck crams it all into a delightful 60 minutes.

College daze

The nifty production features several fellow Rowan students: stage manager MacKenzie Trush, scenic designer Andrew Robinson, and videographer Robin Purtell appear onstage, and Abby Leyh (sound designer) and Alex Dossantos (lighting designer) contribute solid work as well. The whole show has a DIY, zero-budget feel that's familiar in the Fringe, infused with gleeful zaniness.

For such young performers, Westerbeck and company are surprisingly comfortable riffing with an audience. Westerbeck improvises and ad-libs like a pro but sticks to the plan, conjuring fun from every random thing that happens.

There's a serious and vulnerable side to this relentlessly optimistic young woman, however, which Westerbeck weaves into the text to give Peg! the satisfying ending it deserves. Peg! is a gem.