“Booger Red” is a 55-minute one-man show that packs a punch to the heart.
While the performance takes place on the small stage inside Threshold Repertory Theater in Charleston, writer and actor Jim Loucks takes the audience through the past, present and future of his life and his father’s.
Loucks starts the show behind a podium, preaching to the audience as he acts as his father. He soon starts the story of how his father became a preacher, explaining how his father was abused as a child and later abandoned by his mother and stepmother.
Throughout the play, Loucks switches from talking to the audience directly and reenacting the events from his father’s life to his own past and what it was like growing up a preacher’s kid.
Under the gaze of his faithful and righteous dad, Loucks rebelled. He depicted this by imitating his father, ranting about unholy music like Billy Joel before switching to a younger version of himself.
He would quickly change from pretending to be his father before going to the other side of the stage, sitting down in a chair and acting as if he was in a bar smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, something his father would disapprove of.
Growing out of his troubled teenage years, Loucks decided to become an actor. His appreciation and perception of his father changed as he realized they both were born to love the stage and be performers (despite his father not agreeing that preaching is exactly performing).
In “Booger Red,” the singing isn’t earth-shattering or tear-inducing, and sometimes the jokes fall a little flat, leaving the audience confused about whether they should laugh. But the story of how Loucks grew to love and admire his father makes the show a passionate performance worthy of a watch.
IF YOU PLAN TO GO: Shows are 6 p.m., June 3; and 7 p.m., June 4 and Tickets are $15 and available at CityPaperTickets.com Location: Threshold Repertory Theater, 84 ½ Society St.
Timia Cobb is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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