Remission

Summary

This is a full recording of Daniel Martin Berkey performing the play Remission, which Backstage magazine called "mind-blowing" and NYTheater called "90 intense and harrowing minutes of spectacular wordplay." Written by playwright Kirk Wood Bromley ("Shakespeare on mushrooms" - LA Weekly), produced by NYC's Inverse Theater (“Best Downtown Theater Company" - NYPress 2001), scored by John Gideon, and originally performed by Berkey himself in the NYC Fringe Festival in 2009 (winning "Outstanding Solo Show"), Remission tells the story of Berkey’s journey into and out of schizophrenia in dramatic verse that one reviewer termed "a terrifying, violent freefall into insanity" (JustShowsToGoYou).

With his symptoms beginning at age six, Berkey experienced a spectrum of challenges, including berating voices and haunting visions, paranoia and catatonia, and addiction to sex, heroin, and alcohol. Then, at the age of 51, homeless and deranged, while walking along a freeway on Long Island, he saw a vision – a giant golden cube suspended in the sky from which emanated 3000 winged humanoid figures beckoning him to join them in the World Self. Awaking from the splendor, he walked home, flushed his medications, and has been symptom-free ever since.

And while this journey is central to Remission's narrative, the play is more than a retelling. With each line, the play "stretches, exercises, jolts, and exalts the audience" (NYTheater) by immersing it in an experience of actually having schizophrenia, creating a "one-of-a-kind, undiluted and unforgettable trip into the crazy." (JustShowsToGoYou).