Steven Berkoff: One Act Plays

Description

Steven Berkoff has been variously described as controversial, thrilling, electric and dynamic. A Renaissance man of the theatre, he is known equally for his writing, directing and acting. Collecting together nineteen one-act plays, this volume presents never-before-published material. Abusive, shocking and endlessly surprising, these sharply written pieces showcase Berkoff's trademark controversy, black humour and dramatic dialectics. Themes that haunt much of his work are present: his luxurious verbosity; his counterpoint of crude street-patter and elegiac proclamation; sex wars; class wars; dislocation and abandonment of love in a thankless and unyielding world. The selection of plays allows the performer and reader to experience Berkoff's fluid anarchic poetry at its most profane within the complete and pithy structure of the one-act play. Established plays such as The Biblical Tales (which enjoyed success in their 2010 run at the New End Theatre, Hampstead) stand alongside previously unpublished material, giving the range of Berkoff's work full expression, from his established thematic concerns to his new and unseen work. Perfect for student and amateur performances, this volume contains a full introduction by Geoffrey Colman, Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. His plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. Among the many adaptations Berkoff has created for the stage, directed and toured, are Kafka's Metamorphosis and The Trial, Agamemnon after Aeschylus, and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. He has directed and toured productions of Shakespeare's Coriolanus also playing the title role, Richard II, Hamlet and Macbeth, as well as Oscar Wilde's Salome. Geoffrey Colman is Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses and workshops both in the UK and abroad.

Steven Berkoff is one of the major minor contemporary dramatists in Britain and - due to his self fashioning as a bad boy of British theatre and the ensuing attention of the media - a phenomenon in his own right' * Modern Drama * at its best his language has a demotic saltiness - as when Saul deploys Cockney rhyming slang to warn David he's suspected of being an "iron hoof" -- Michael Billington * The Guardian * A master doing what he does best . . . I loved it. I had a wonderful experience and I left the theatre happy and truly affected. * What's On The Fringe.com *