Steven Berkoff links
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Acapulco
At about
70 minutes, "Acapulco" is not so much a drama
as a chapter of his autobiography, concerned with a time
when he found himself in Mexico whiling away location
hours at a bar on call to Sylvester Stallone as the heavy
in a Rambo movie. |
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Actor Bruce Weber, New York Times, 4 Feb 2002
It's a depiction of a familiar type- the narcissistic and
painfully self-centered performer- in a familiar vein. In
this man's two-faced relations with other actors, in his
addiction to women who will slavishly adore him and in
his sad dealings with the expectations of his parents, he
offers few variations on the theme that we haven't seen
before. And as both writer and actor, Mr. Berkoff leads
us toward a conclusion that his character is a comic one,
worthy of mockery. |
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Agamemnon (link is down) Joseph Bowen Steven Berkoff has
taken this great play and made it more vicious and at the
same time more accessible than the original. This
production by European Repertory is a highly stylized,
atmospheric, gripping experience which begins when you
walk into the theater. You are in a large open space, the
walls of which are metal sheets attached with rivets.
Three gutted pigs made of wire hung from the ceiling. Two
towers of metal trash cans form a Greek column
proscenium, and three piles of tires serve as all purpose
props and set pieces. At center, a large Red door, behind
which awaits Agamemnon's death. Ominous organ music
greets you. |
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Agamemnon phantompong live journal 13 Aug 2007
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Agamemnon John Berger, starbulletin.com, 24 Oct 2003 Photo Jeremy Pippin
The problematic aspects are elsewhere.
The use of a chorus to provide narration and commentary
is a quintessential part of ancient Greek theater, but
much of the individual dialogue comes across as
theatrical recitation. Aeschylus' story is rife with
torment and soaked with blood, and the recitation conveys
little sense of it. |
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Agamemnon
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Berkoff´s Women
(link is down)
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Berkoff´s
Women (link is down)
Though
she hasn't Berkoff's ability to grab us by force and put
emotional half-nelsons on us - and who has? - [Linda
Marlowe is] a splendidly versatile, confident performer.
... You don't feel, as you might, that Berkoff is
indulging in male self-flagellation or offering up
mantras of mea culpa. His writing is about as un-wet as
writing gets. Nor do you feel, as you also might, that he
is patronising women as poor, pitiable victims.
Nevertheless, there are scenes when he and Marlowe show
us female pain as well as female envy and anger: a wife
despairingly appeasing a bullying husband by cooking and
more cooking and, best of all, the failed good-time-girl
in My Point of View. |
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The Bow of Ulysses AF Harrold 2006 It avoids
any hint at conversation, with each character speaking in
long soliloquies, before passing the baton to the
other. He feels he has wasted twenty years married
to her, she believes he'd have been nothing without her
support. The truth, as truth always is, is more
complicated and the sides switch around and explore one
another, without ever touching in conversation. Again
this is stylised and entirely effective. |
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