Through April 23
BERSERKER Alleyway Theatre
This isn’t some tale of really crazed Vikings or the AI death stars of Fred Saberhagen’s “Berserker” novels.
Bruce Walsh’s “Berserker” is a play about a lot of troubled people, particularly Patrick Cameron’s Pete Greer.
His marriage to Kelly Copps’ Vicky, a fellow teacher in a Southwest Virginia school, far from the D.C. suburbs, has fallen apart.
Importantly, he’s close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, an incredibly scenic ride, and he likes to camp and hike.
That’s where a bear lives.
They do live across Virginia, although you wonder which of the colleges and universities in the state the bear supports.
“Berserker” won the 2019 Maxim Mazumdar International New Play Competition.
It’s named for the Canadian playwright and actor who had developed strong ties to the Alleyway and to some local theater people before his sudden death in 1988, at 35.
Clearly, the last three years have delayed a stage production.
This production is held together by two things, the gonzo performance of Haleigh Curr as Mason and the music of Led Zeppelin.
Everybody in the show seems interested in Led Zep, even the bear.
Mostly, these aren’t people you want to spend a lot of time with.
Greer is tired of his teaching job and tired of wife Vicky and signs up with an agency which deals with troubled kids and Mason qualifies.
The new teacher puts the moves on the office administrator, Sara Kow-Falcone’s Soojin.
He believes it’s reciprocated, as Mason acrobatically cavorts around, watching the alleged adults in the room.
Vicky surfaces and walks into this.
She has found someone new and Soojin really isn’t interested in Pete.
The bear pays the price.
“Berserker” might have worked a little better if director Robyn Lee Horn had eased the manic pace of the performers.
She’s working with strong scenery and costumes from Collin Ranney.
In the long history of the Alleyway and its new plays, they often need work.
That’s not just the routine rewrites during rehearsals and performances, it’s also sitting back and evaluating the full run of the shows and then making even more changes.
Playwright Walsh has built a strong platform and director Horn worked with him during the rehearsals.
“Berserker” is definitely a work in progress, perhaps one you can tell people some time in the future: I saw that before it was a hit.
A.W.
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