Lorna Irvine is greatly impressed by the Conflux production.
Suburban psychopaths, torture, fire, Disney creatures in negative...not a Friday night in Milngavie but the concise vignettes spun by Al Seed. Conflux's artistic director Seed emerges from the dry ice like a cabaret performer from the irritated bowels of Hell. With his every nuance and gesticulation utterly precise—from the flutter or fold of his hands to his charming utterance of the word 'pervert'—Seed is completely mesmerising, a wicked conjurer of mood.
This is Seed's first solo piece since 2009's The Fooligan, with further projects forthcoming. In this instance his storytelling, which melts into a kind of warped performance art, examines the seductive nature of vengeance and how it can climb into the subconscious of even the blandest character: sometimes hilarious, often moving, with a keen ear for the absurd and an upending of cliché. All, however, share one thing: a disturbing undercurrent.
Props are minimal but effective, such as the double animal mask (created by Cath Whippey) which he wears to tell the fable of an enterprising mouse and a curmudgeonly bear, or a bloodied bandage over one eye for a wayward wounded man.
Seed lets his stories stand alone, and the brutal F/X by Guy Veale, which sound like the buzzing of a brain, only add to the dreamlike intensity.
Nothing as prosaic as the 'everyday' here- pretty damn special.
www.alseed.net
www.conflux.co.uk
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