[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Venessa Verdugo’s solo show, HOOLIGANI – a part of the 30 minute or Less Festival.
Venessa Verdugo packs an awful lot into this 30-minute solo play. Making the sole subject of your play a deeply flawed and unlikable character with a whole army of skeletons in her dank closet is a challenge. To find some glimmer of humanity for the audience to cling to was a difficult task with this matronly, sexually ambiguous, soul grasping for any way of getting out of Russia with little care for who she ruined along the way.
The story of this troubled life is pretty dark and it is told as she delivers her witness confession as part of a plea deal in the US, rolling over on those far higher up the food chain than she. Yet another desperate act in a long line of them, her only real regret is that of getting caught. Clearly a psychopath, Hooligani is one of those reprehensible humans who seem able to destroy without regret and move through her sordid life with no detectable conscience.
As she describes her life journey, her exploits, her misdeeds, and the many bodies she stepped over and through, she does so with clinical precision. Nothing in her voice or physicality displays anything but an icy narcissistic personality. Cold, dead eyes and a dismissive tone create within the audience feelings of disgust and dismay. That people this evil can exist, develop or seize an opportunity to become is truly appalling.
Venessa Verdugo seems born to play this role. She delivers this cascade of vile explanations for her situation with a glib and nonchalant air. So calm, so collected, so bereft of empathy. I swear I felt the need for a shower when this show was over. And if that was the point, then I guess this was an absolute masterclass in how to perform a villain. In that way, Hooligani was an unexpected treat. One that I truly would not have thought I had the capacity to enjoy and normally I might have avoided attending altogether. However, I would have missed out on an utterly riveting performance.
Venessa Verdugo plays Hooligani with an almost careless ease. She channels this terrible woman, this spiteful, vengeful ice queen of sex trafficking and drug smuggling. Capable of doing just about anything for money, like so many criminals before her, she makes her flimsy excuses. For my family. For freedom. For fear. All lies are easily seen through. But Venessa spins them with impressive believability. Hooligani is ‘Sopranos’ like in its impeccable, sickening validity. Bravo, and yuck. But what a performance!
Produced by Soaring Solo Studios, Hooligani has dates upcoming in L.A. and beyond.