Steven Berkoff – författare

A World Elsewhere is Steven Berkoff’s bold attempt to describe his multifarious theatrical works.Berkoff outlines the methods that he uses, first of all as an actor, secondly as a playwright and thirdly as theatre director, as well as those subtle connections in between, when one discipline melds effortlessly into another. He examines the early impulses that generated his works and what drove him to give them form, as well as the challenges he faced when adapting the work of other authors. Berkoff discusses some of his most difficult, successful and unique creations, journeying through his long and varied career to examine how they were shaped by him, and how he was shaped by them. The sheer scale of this book offers a rare experience of an accomplished artist, combined with the honesty and insight of an autobiography, making this text a singular tool for teaching, inspiration and personal exploration.Suitable for anyone with an interest in Steven Berkoff and his illustrious career, A World Elsewhere is the part analysis and part confession of an artist whose work has been performed all over the world.

A World Elsewhere is Steven Berkoff’s bold attempt to describe his multifarious theatrical works.Berkoff outlines the methods that he uses, first of all as an actor, secondly as a playwright and thirdly as theatre director, as well as those subtle connections in between, when one discipline melds effortlessly into another. He examines the early impulses that generated his works and what drove him to give them form, as well as the challenges he faced when adapting the work of other authors. Berkoff discusses some of his most difficult, successful and unique creations, journeying through his long and varied career to examine how they were shaped by him, and how he was shaped by them. The sheer scale of this book offers a rare experience of an accomplished artist, combined with the honesty and insight of an autobiography, making this text a singular tool for teaching, inspiration and personal exploration.Suitable for anyone with an interest in Steven Berkoff and his illustrious career, A World Elsewhere is the part analysis and part confession of an artist whose work has been performed all over the world.

What goes through a man's mind when he is playing Hamlet? How does Shakespeare's best known play actually work, from the inside? And what effect does playing Hamlet have on a man's life? Steven Berkoff nine years ago directed a production of "Hamlet" in which he took the title role, and here are his scene-by-scene observations, which cover the whole range of human experience - from love and death, to life in Britain now. "I am Hamlet" not only shows the mind of an actor at work, but it is also an expression of the lasting authority of Shakespeare's play.

Written with characteristic Berkoff flair and an understanding of the subtle power and violence of the English language, this second collection of his plays includes Decadence, described by the Guardian as being 'enthused with Berkoff's violent, imagist, vivid wordplay'. The collection also includes Kvetch, Acapulco, Harry's Christmas, Brighton Beach Scumbags, Dahling You Were Marvellous, Dog and Actor, and is introduced by the author.

'Franz Kafka has found his perfect modern interpreter in Steven Berkoff.' Financial TimesFocusing on rehearsals for the 1992 Mitsubishi Theater, Tokyo, production of his adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, Steven Berkoff muses on the nine previous productions of the play over a twenty-three-year-span, starting with his own performance as Gregor Samsa in 1969 at the Round House, London, and taking in the productions in Los Angeles in 1982 with Brad Davis, 1986 at the Mermaid in London with Tim Roth, 1988 in Paris with Roman Polanski and 1989 in New York with Mikhail Baryshnikov.Meditations on 'Metamorphosis' dissects and illuminates Kafka's story and Berkoff's own stage adaptation, contrasting rehearsal techniques and performance styles between different cultures and sexes. A valuable document for anyone interested in Metamorphosis and all who relish the explosive dynamism of Steven Berkoff's work.

What made Steven Berkoff? Born in the East End in 1937 and educated at Hackney Downs Grammar (Harold Pinter's old school), throughout his life as actor, director and playwright, Steven Berkoff has been variously described as exciting, controversial, thrilling, egocentric, electric and dynamic.Ranging freely between his childhood, his teenage years spent going 'up West', a formative year with family in the USA, his early days in theatre, this first collection of autobiographical writings from Steven Berkoff shows how he siphoned off and transformed those experiences for his plays, East and West and how his later experiences informed Greek. Berkoff's autobiography is essential reading for all those fascinated by his explosive dynamism and an inspiration to those wanting to enter the theatrical profession.

Steven Berkoff is a phenomenon. Among the artists working in the theatre today he is probably the most theatrical - his special combination of speech, movement and spectacle is uniquely powerful. This first collection of his plays includes East, described by Berkoff as 'an outburst or revolt against the sloth of my youth and a desire to turn a welter of undirected passion and frustration into a positive form'. Also included in this collection are the plays West and Sink the Belgrano!

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.

Harry is a dedicated actor, often out of work, rejected and desperate for opportunities to practice his art. Brief moments of success only serve to increase his thirst for fulfillment. In these moving, sometimes harrowing short stories Steven Berkoff, tears the skin off the acting profession to reveal the raw, bleeding reality of the actors everyday life.

This is a powerful, divisive and brutally honest novel that will inspire, enrage and provoke - and live on long after the final word.