Three master thespians have gifted you the show of your life. Rejoice! They've agreed to do a talkback. The creators of The Giant Squid and The Annihilation Point conduct an experiment that lampoons the art form they claim to have conquered. Go for the talkback, stay for the show. . . .
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You are very late as you walk into the last five minutes of a stereotypical American kitchen-sink drama titled "Prodigal Father." Within moments of finding your seat, a cast of actors come out to take their bows and launch into a talkback for a play the audience never saw. Events spiral out of control as they guide you through a Q&A you couldn’t be less prepared for. Part playtime, part unpredictable script, this is The Berserker Residents' scariest show yet - as the audience has a large control over how the "show" is performed. This is our love/hate song to theatre, to the arts, to artists, and the institution as a whole.
For this production, The Berserkers Residents have reverse engineered improvisation. They know the answer to every question you are going to ask, because they planned for it. They’re just waiting for you to raise your hand.
Over the past year, The Berserker Residents have had successful workshop showings of this project at Live Arts' Scratch Night, at Ars Nova in NYC, and during a month-long residency at the bar at Plays and Players. This is their 6th show to date and their 4th year in the Fringe Festival.
The Berserker Residents are dedicated to original works of alternative comedy with a pop-comic aesthetic. This team of Philadelphia-based specialists in site-specific overgrown kid theater consists of three mighty warriors - collaborators Justin Jain, David Johnson, and Bradley K. Wrenn. As a collective, these three Philly-based artists have spearheaded a comedic theatrical style that blends physical theatre, puppetry, music, sketch, and prop comedy to create compelling and fantastic theatrical events. As an ensemble, the team has worked with several other professional theatre artists including directors Adrienne Mackey, artistic director of Swim Pony Performing Arts, Oliver Butler, co-artistic director of the Debate Society and Dan Rothenberg, artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company and supporter of the artistic team’s past work.
The Berserkers first show, The Jersey Devil, premiered at the 2007 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The success of The Jersey Devil lead this fledgling ensemble to commit to a trilogy of shows, creating two more pieces for the following two Fringe Festivals (2008 and 2009). Their second show was The Giant Squid, a scientific lecture gone awry of which the Philadelphia Inquirer said “The Giant Squid is innovative, packed with little surprises, fine-tuned, and wonderfully wacky… And it sizzles.” The Following year the ensemble created “a delightfully goofy humanity-in-peril tale” (New York Times), The Annihilation Point, which later (Jan 2011) toured to the Abrons Arts Center in NYC. In 2010-2011 The Berserkers also received two commissions: The Very Merry Xmas... (published by Playscripts Inc.) from Philadelphia based Theater Horizon and The Lapsburgh Layover from Ars Nova NYC.
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