The Berserker Residents, a theater trio from Philadelphia, who heartily live up to their name, have a new show. After seeing their zany yet intelligent Annihilation Point in 2010, I thought of them as potential Marx Brothers for our time.  Oliver Butler, co-artistic director of the original and rewarding Debate Society (Buddy Cop 2), joins them here, as director and co-developer. This should make for an interesting show.  Both groups like to take chances, are concerned with details, and put on shows that are layers deep.  I spoke with Butler.
 
Hi Oliver.  I see you have added a fourth member in the cast, a woman.
 
The Berserker Residents are the three main guys -- Justin Jain, Dave Johnson and Bradley K. Wrenn. Leah Walton has worked with them a few times in Philadelphia.  I think she was in The Giant Squid.  She's fabulous.  For all intents and purposes, she is one of the ensemble members here.  They've really integrated her into the show.
 
OK, so tell me about The Lapsburgh Layover.
The conceit of it is that the audience has landed in a foreign country for a short 60-minute layover.  Lapsburgh is an invented country; the audience knows very little about it, a la North Korea.  It's been under a nearly complete media blackout for the last 40 years.  The audience is basically the first Americans to step on the soil of Lapsburgh in 40 years.  The history is that there was, maybe, one year ago, a regime change.  Now the people of Lapsburgh have realized that no one is flying to their country as a destination, so they have taken this 60-minute opportunity to show off the best version of their culture, as a way to start a grass-roots, viral campaign, so people will travel to Lapsburgh.
 
I like that, sort of a 60-minute Chamber of Commerce pitch.
 
You're met by the three great heroes of Lapsburgh, and the woman who has been the wife to every dictator in the last 40 years.  She's an older woman, she was the face of Lapsburgh for 40 years; her picture was on every poster. The three younger heroes had grown up seeing her face everywhere.  But now, in this new order, she has attained a leadership position, and is married to the people.
 
This is the premise, and we find out all this in the first scene.  So what they have proposed is first, a play, that has been written in the style of the greatest American art form: mystery dinner theater.  And, second, that's peppered by short breaks, in which they break out to tell the audience about their customs and culture.  And third, the audience is served a Lapsburghian meal.
 
It's a lot of great intentions.  It's an event that would have been merely a layover, which would be something you're forced to go through.  But these people, with the best intentions, are trying to turn a nuisance of 60 minutes into the greatest 60 minutes in the audience's life.
 
I saw Annihilation Point, and I loved all the fantastic sets and costumes and props, and the wild extent of imagination that these guys show.
 
They do highly complex clown experiences and audience interaction that are layered with detail and clowning.  They like to create things and change things, a reality that is slipping on a dime.  In the work I have been lucky to do with the Debate Society, and I want to stress that this is not a Debate Society show, my interest is in creating a very thick world, filled with details, a world that has a real depth to it.  And I believe, in some ways, there is an overlap with the Berserkers.  My dream, and I think their dream too, is that we have created a piece that is presented in a way that amplifies things; but to top it off, there is a basic melancholy that bubbles to the top, that stands on its own in contrast to the hilarity of the comedy.
 
How do you mean?
 
Without giving anything away, in the end the play tends to inadvertently reveal some of the darker, sadder, strange secrets of Lapsburgh and its people.  I feel that the Berserkers have explored what happens when things fail, and they have an interest in grand failure. Creating an experience of grand failure is exciting for an audience.  I think that is at the heart of it.
 
Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St., (212) 352-3101. Sept. 12-24. Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 and available here.