Berserkers are ancient Norse warriors connected with the god Odin. In old Norse, the word means “bear skin or bear shirt.” Warriors took on the essence and spirit of the great bears of the Scandinavian wilderness.

Fighting (Inner) Demons

Berserkers are ancient Norse warriors connected with the god Odin. In old Norse, the word means “bear skin or bear shirt.” Warriors took on the essence and spirit of the great bears of the Scandinavian wilderness. They worked themselves into a frenzy before battle and fought their enemies with insane fury and courage.

Elementary school teacher Peter Greer, the protagonist in Bruce Walsh’s play, Berserker, certainly works himself into a frenzy, but falls short in the warrior/courage department. He mainly battles his own demons, who grow more powerful as he descends into madness.

While on a solo camping trip in southwest Virginia, he encounters a bear and runs away in terror. He cuts a hole in a fence and enters the property of LeiberCraft Partners Limited, which produces online gaming platforms. As he is walking, a birdhouse nearby begins singing Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love”. He being a huge fan, is intrigued and strikes up a conversation. The voice is that of a woman calling herself Dana who claims to be a security guard but is really SooJin, an executive with the company. He returns home to tell his “not-my-wife” Vicky of his adventure. She is surprised and unhappy to see him return so soon and tells him she no longer wants to have sex with him. Peter upends his entire life, leaving Vicky and their daughter, and, intrigued by “Dana” takes on the position of reading teacher to the out-of-control 12-year-old head of LeiberCraft, Mason, who must pass a reading test to advance to 7^th grade. Peter falls for SooJin, who becomes his lover but not his soulmate, and he begins to unravel.

The play is a tragicomic look into the psyche of a man who, on the surface, is a creative and successful teacher with a partner and child. After being terrified by the bear and rejected by Vicky and then SooJin, cracks form in that veneer, and he is eventually undone by his own unresolved fears and rage.

A Tragicomedy of Sorts

The play has some fine comic moments in addition to the sturm und drang. In a very strong performance, Kelly Copps as the long-suffering Vicky has both a bemused and sardonic expression as she tries to navigate the many moods of Peter. Her mystification when he goes off the rails, “He left me because he saw a bear”, and her declaration of her own value are expertly handled.

Sara Kow-Falcone as SooJin is equally strong in a larger role. She also declares her own worth in an at once very funny and very serious monologue about being stereotyped as the meek Asian woman in the corporate world she inhabited before coming to LeiberCraft. She is at once flirty and tough and handles the role with aplomb.

Haleigh Curr plays the role of the 12-year-old Mason in an over-the-top performance that, while comical, would be more at home in a farce. They have what appears to be an elastic body that drapes itself over furniture and contorts itself while dropping f-bombs everywhere. Director Robyn Lee Horn might have reined them in a bit because they obviously are very talented and might have been better served with a “less is more” approach.

And then there is Peter. Patrick Cameron takes on this central and demanding role with wit, charm, and as his character decompensates and erupts with all the rage that has been bottled up inside, he never falters. From the dedicated Led-head to the man in love, to the crazed killer, to the meth-addled mess he has become, Mr. Cameron handles it all expertly in a performance that never seems forced even at his most outrageous.

Collin Ranney’s set evokes the mountains and trees of Virginia’s Blue Ridge wilderness, with beautiful amber lighting in the background, designed by Emma Schimminger, who later pulls out all the stops with colorful flashing lights when Peter and SooJin have their first encounter in the woods. Director Horn creates smooth scene changes that keep the action going as the characters move from the wilderness to the office to Peter and Vicky’s home.

A Play with Unexpected Turns

Led Zeppelin music surrounds the play, with discussion about the meaning or lack thereof of “Stairway to Heaven”, the iconic piece beloved by teenage boys everywhere. Cat Stevens also makes an appearance.

The play takes unexpected turns that surprise, going from a comic sequence to a disturbing one in a flash, leaving the audience wondering what might come next. While the ending seemed too pat for what had gone before, Berserker is an absorbing look into the psyche of a man on the edge who topples into the abyss.