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Playwrights => Steven Berkoff discussion => Topic started by: articles on June 10, 2012, 12:41:08 PM

Title: 6 Actors and interview
Post by: articles on June 10, 2012, 12:41:08 PM
Spotlight On: Steven Berkoff, 18 May 2012, by Charlotte Whitehead.

From an interesting article on Steven.

"Whilst waiting for the delayed writer and director of 6 Actors in Search of a Director, I meet some of the bustling cast... actor Neil Stuke describes the play (ironically, in retrospect, due to Berkoff’s initial, unintended absence) as 'actors waiting in a room for a director. It’s tense.'”
 
"Speaking frankly, [Berkoff] explains how, despite being marketed as a comedy, 6 Actors in Search of a Director is “more a slice of life which has comedic elements to it. It is about the laughter of the ridiculousness of the situation.” One can see how this is possible as the show focuses on actors playing actors, who are anxiously waiting in a room for their director to return. Berkoff elaborates on the play by describing how “they are trapped in a situation, waiting, waiting, always waiting. It is an actor’s raison d’etre; all he has to do is entertain himself, to chat, have idle gossip, give funny opinions. It is abrasive, like a pack of dogs in a pen who are hunting. It is about being functional...”
 
"...Berkoff reveals he “juxtaposes images, which are distinctly against each other.  I like to try and be unusual, and find an inventive way of presenting ideas. In my opinion, verse is more inventive than prose. I’ve used a lot of poetry in plays. I like to put verse into drama.”
 
"... he does concede an appreciation of Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams’s writing. As for Berkoff’s future, he simply wants to “keep on working”. Hoping that 6 Actors in Search of a Director transfers to the West End, he’s also keen to “put on a Eugene O’Neill play..."

The article is here
www.ayoungertheatre.com/spotlight-on-steven-berkoff/ (http://www.ayoungertheatre.com/spotlight-on-steven-berkoff/)