The Fooligan

Somewhere, in limbo between time and space, a storyteller lingers, yearning to once again perform for an eager audience.

At least, that's one possible interpretation of Al Seed's latest work, The Fooligan. Seed's 45-minute monologue sees him clown around stage, using gesture, mimicry, face-pulling and movement to convey a multitude of characters. In fact, the play is all about Seed's performance; character and plot have little to do with it.

While one enjoys and appreciates the skill Seed displays, the play never fully engages with the audience. Seed's character seems to be a cross between an eccentric uncle desperate for a reaction and a deranged clown who's focusing more attention on the adults than the children he's meant to entertain. It feels like an elaborate bedtime story, meant more to entertain and distract than to move an audience. Indeed, like a bedtime story, one is hard-pressed to remember many details the next morning.

That isn't to say that the production is poorly done. It isn't. It's well executed with energetic staging and simple, yet effective, design. The lights add texture to the piece with some clever effects and the music is both haunting and hypnotic.

And Seed's performance work is solid. He's entertaining and creepy at the same time and manages to raise a few genuine laughs. But whereas Seed the actor more or less succeeds, Seed the writer does not. The main character falls flat and the script offers no more than an excuse for Seed to stand on stage and perform his 'act'.

Though not a failure, The Fooligan is still a disappointment. It's a harmlessly enjoyable hour that asks little of its audience. It entertains, but leaves little to no impact.