UPDATE 5.8.23: Out of Pocket Inc., the theater company staging "The Nerd," has announced that a show scheduled for Thursday has been canceled due to an illness affecting the cast. The company's statement indicated that the performances slated for Friday and Saturday are expected to go on as scheduled.

Nowadays, we regard nerds as lovable yet introverted intellectuals who spend an inordinate amount of time on eccentric but harmless pursuits. They play Dungeons & Dragons. They hack technology. They read manga.

Calling someone a nerd is something of a term of endearment.

But back when playwright Larry Shue wrote “The Nerd,” which premiered in 1981, the label was decidedly less complimentary. In fact, it was an insult reserved for socially-inept nimrods of the highest order, rather than, say, a person who LARPs in Highland Park or gives a TED Talk on the mating habits of gall wasps.

It is in that context that G. Tristan Berlet delivers a side-splitting and spine-curling performance in the title role of this two-act comedy opening Friday at MuCCC and playing through May 13, courtesy of Out of Pocket Inc. theater company.

Berlet plays Rick Steadman, who saved the life of Willum Cubbert (played by Edward O. Byrne) when they served together in Vietnam. Although they have never met because Willum was unconscious for Rick’s heroics, they kept up a correspondence, and a grateful Willum promised to welcome Rick into his home should he ever be in Terre Haute, Indiana.



Rick pops into town at an anxious time for Willum, an architect who is simultaneously struggling to commit to his weather forecaster girlfriend Tansy (Abby DeVuyst) and host a dinner party for a demanding client (Peter Elliott), his wife (Rachel Solomon), and their bratty son (Thomas Lynch).

Ratcheting up the tension is Rick himself. He is a classic nerd. His glasses are taped together. He wears a short-sleeved white shirt with a dark tie and carries a notepad and a pen in his breast pocket. He looks as though he were plucked from Mission Control, although his real day job is as a chalk inspector.
Appearances aside, though, Rick is repugnant. He is a social moron of epic proportions. He speaks in a high-pitched squeal, travels with a tambourine that he plays from sheet music, and eats cottage cheese with his hands. His idea of a party game is something a kindergartner might improvise.

Unlike the nerds of today, Rick is neither lovable nor brainy. He is an obnoxious dimwit. From the moment he arrives, every other character wants him to leave, but he doesn't get the hint and hunkers down.

The conviction with which Berlet plays this imbecile is the main reason audiences will stick around and enjoy the ride, long after they’ve given up suspending their disbelief that anyone could be so insufferable or that his host could be so patient.

“The Nerd” first came to life at a staged reading at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater during the 1979-80 theater season. The audience adored it so much that the theater commissioned a full production the following season.

From there, the show shot to Europe and Broadway, where it was a box office smash despite mixed reviews from critics, who took issue with the play’s sheer inanity.

Indeed, the story offers next to nothing in the way of plot or character development, although it does surprise with a twist ending and a touching message.

In that way, “The Nerd” has all the markings of a sitcom from the era in which it was written —snappy one-liners, slapstick humor, slamming doors, and smashing dishes.

The only way the repressed Clelia Waldgrave, played deftly by Solomon, can get through the dinner party — and life with her pompous husband and their spoiled boy — is by breaking china with a hammer she carries around in her purse.
This production often struggles to capitalize on these punctuation marks, however, due to uneven pacing magnified by the muted performance of Byrne as Willum.

While Willum is intended to play the deadpan in the comedic equation, Byrne’s depiction of him is so subdued as to sap energy from the cast and slow the rapid clip of the farce. Only when he resorts to snorting like a pig to shoo Rick out the door late in the second act does Byrne demonstrate that he can shine.

The sharpest performance is that of Danny Kincaid Kunz as Willum’s drama critic friend, Axel. His role has the bulk of the best one-liners, and Kunz makes the most of them by playing his part with the necessary verve and swagger.

In her notes in the playbill, director Stephanie Roosa wrote that she was drawn to the play by its message of friendship and loyalty.

Ultimately, “The Nerd” is less about a misfit who overstays his welcome, than the pains one will take to do a friend a favor or nudge them where they need to go — even if that means out the door.

“The Nerd” opens 7:30 p.m. May 5 at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center and plays through May 13. Tickets range from $15 to $25.