“Berserker was supposed to be about a vampire,” says Paul Outlaw, creator and performer of the project, which was first presented as a work-in-progress at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA. Outlaw had been asked to create a 15-minute piece for an evening of new works by members of Rosanna Gamson’s dance theater ensemble at Highways in October 2002.

“In my first solo piece Here Be Dragons I had portrayed about 25 different characters, either historical or contemporary, all ‘real people,’ and I was thinking about something a little more fictional, maybe even fantastical this time,” Outlaw continues. “I still wanted to explore the themes of race, sexuality and American society in Dragons, just from another angle.” After some preliminary research and brainstorming with Gamson, Outlaw became intrigued by the idea of the “berserker” – ancient Scandinavian warriors whose battle frenzy was said to bestow invulnerability. As it happens, Vlad Tepes, the historical figure known primarily as the vampire Count Dracula, was often referred to as a berserker… as was the rampaging American slave Nat Turner and the cannibal serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Outlaw began collecting texts about these three “bloodthirsty” characters as the basis for a new solo piece.

Director Tanya Kane-Parry picks up the thread. “I had recently met Paul and we’d hit it off immediately. We come from similar artistic backgrounds and were both excited about meeting a kindred soul in the Los Angeles scene.” So when Outlaw approached her about collaborating on his new project, now called Berserker, she agreed to direct him in it. Kane-Parry: “Although I’ve often been frustrated by the myopic, narcissistic tedium calling itself solo performance work-” “Identity Theater,” interrupts Outlaw, with a laugh.

“I liked the idea that the impetus for Berserker arose from Paul’s interest in examining the archetype of Self,” Kane-Parry continues, “in relationship to history, ancestry and contemporary iconic ‘celebrities’.”

During a four-week rehearsal period, director and performer trimmed pages and pages of material from The Confessions of Nat Turner and transcripts of interviews and statements by Jeffrey Dahmer and worked them into a quarter-hour of physical theater; along the way the vampire got staked. “Vlad was an interesting choice intellectually, but Turner and Dahmer resonated more for Paul,” explains Kane-Parry. “So we cut the Dracula layer.”

After the Highways performances, Outlaw and Kane-Parry began the work on expanding the “sledgehammer of a monologue” (LA Weekly) into a longer piece, introducing a third character—Outlaw himself. It was clear to the two collaborators that in a longer one-act the intensity of the two berserkers would need a counterbalance. “I kept thinking during the work on the first version that I needed to be speaking, to be responding to Dahmer and Turner,” says the actor, “but I didn’t have enough distance from the material yet.” “And we’d only had 15 minutes,” reminds the director.

In subsequent weeks, Outlaw assembled and wrote the additional text, revising a central monologue from Here Be Dragons and weaving in excerpts of Essex Hemphill’s raw account of violent sexual awakening and the lyrical prose of Samuel Delany’s description of the destruction of the slave family. “Throughout, Paul started intertwining his own ironic and often comic relationship to family, race and the ‘whitening’ of the African-American legacy,” explains Kane-Parry. “The piece became a refracted journey into American History through the eyes of a gay black man.”

The 60-minute one-act premiered in April 2003 as the final offering in a solo performance series entitled “Voices in the Wilderness” at Theater! Theatre! In Portland, OR and soon after was selected by the jury to be presented at the Seventh Annual New York International Fringe Festival in August 2003. Following those six performances, Berserker returned to California in September 2003 for a week at the 12th Annual San Francisco Fringe Festival, where it recieved a Best of the Fringe Award for Best Male Dramatic Solo Performance.

“Berserker is not your typical solo performance,” muses Outlaw, “but that’s probably why we’ve enjoyed creating it so much.”

“Definitely,” concurs Kane-Parry, who has brought her own unique perspective to this evening of male rage and ritual. “I enjoy demystifying the forbidden, the horrific, the ‘unspeakable’ - and revealing the absurdity and humor in them, like in the Grand Guignol.”

Berserker: a hilariously unsettling one-person, one-act play. Created and performed by Paul Outlaw. Directed by Tanya Kane-Parry.