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Topic Summary

Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: November 18, 2008, 05:04:45 PM »

Maybe of interest:

www.sotherans.co.uk/Books/Catalog.php?stk=305777&cat=fame08 are selling a copy of Requiem for Ground Zero, signed by Berkoff, for £40.

Strange, because the official website sells signed versions for £10.75.
Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: November 18, 2008, 04:58:40 PM »

Another review from 2002, Brian Logan in guardian.co.uk, 19 August 2002

“Steven Berkoff's staged poem addressing the attack on the World Trade Centre would be gripping viewing if you'd been holidaying on the moon since September 10 2001. Berkoff retells the 9/11 story in the style of an epic narrative. But, with the attack and its consequences still the stuff of news and chat, Requiem for Ground Zero rarely tells us anything we haven't heard many times before. “

“It's all done in Berkoff's trademark grandiose style… But the demands of the epic narrative lead Berkoff to simplify the incident, to present it as an emotional, not a political, drama. His poem adds to rather than undercuts the culture of sentimentality surrounding 9/11 and the myth of its uniqueness…â€

The reviewer does get carried away a bit “…Words are swilled around his mouth like expensive wines - and too often spat out only after they've lost their taste. “

The full review is here:
www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2002/aug/19/theatre.artsfeatures1
Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: November 18, 2008, 04:51:30 PM »

The performance is coming up soon.

An interesting negative review of a previous performance (17 Nov 2002) in the Financial Times by Ian Shuttleworth.

"... Berkoff, alone and black-clad in a circular pool of light on the Ballroom stage, considers various aspects. He describes the ordinary morning, pre-air strike, in New York City; he hymns America as the world's melting pot; he excoriates Islamic fundamentalism; he recounts his own response on seeing the television reportage in a break from rehearsals; he (too quickly, too facilely) lampoons Bush and Blair's rhetoric in the wake of the events. For one who prides himself on standing outside the mainstream – a view belied by the sell-out houses here – he seems to have taken care to check all the requisite boxes, creating an overall picture that is not so much complex as just muddled..."

"...At times the writing is unfocused: when he speaks unspecifically of "we", does he mean the West in general, the British or even, given his own lineage, the Jews? One can't tell. At other times, he runs away with things: a passing respectful mention of the true compassionate spirit of Islam does nothing to balance the lengthy, grandiloquent sneering about Mohammed Atta and his fellows' supposed visions of their place in paradise as martyrs in a holy war..."

The full review is here:
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~shutters/reviews/02047.htm

Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: April 27, 2008, 10:50:50 PM »

Requiem, Steven's poem about 911, is performed by him in Brighton on 20 Nov 2008.  The performance will be followed by a discussion between Berkoff and Polly Toynbee.

More details soon.

Iain