Shakespeare's
Villains
PIPFest
Portland
State University, Lincoln Hall Auditorium, 1620 SW Park
Ave., 725-3307
8
pm Friday-Saturday, July 7-8
$9-$18
Berkoff will
give a free lecture at noon Thursday, July 6, in Room 327
at Portland State University's Smith Center, 1825 SW Broadway.
Shakespeare's
Villains is the first of PIPFest's "Three Shakes," a
series of performance pieces based on Shakespeare, which
includes work by Kerry Shale and Ken Campbell.
"Subsidy is the
only hope against the philistine."
--Steven Berkoff
He has been a titanic force in British theater since the
'60s, though he's often played the prophet without honor
in his own country. From his compelling stage adaptations
of Kafka's The Trial and Metamorphosis, to
the powerful evocations of British life found in his plays
East, Greek and the excoriating Decadence,
Steven Berkoff has set a standard in acting, playwriting
and directing that only a few have dared match.
Though starting his stage career in the hinterland repertory
houses that spot Britain, he soon fell under the influence
of Antonin Artaud's The Theater and Its Double, a
book that became his theatrical Bible. After running off
to Paris to study with Jacques Lecoq, Berkoff exploded upon
British theater, becoming an uncompromising artist who rebelled
against the stultifying naturalism of period and kitchen-sink
dramas, with all their clutter of emotions and props. He
also became a sworn enemy of the "star" ethic that infects
London's West End. His memoir, Free Association,
brilliantly works as a manifesto as well. "I like to create
each production as a piece of theater in a way that has
never been conceived or imagined before," he writes, "as
if there had never been a theater."
Though he's long been a lone vanguard for dramatic experimentation,
he's also a committed classicist, bringing new life to the
Greek plays and to Shakespeare, for whom he has a special
affection. Certainly, he shares the Athenians' and Elizabethans'
love for monologues and soliloquies, and his plays are a
limitless resource for serious auditioners. It's not surprising,
then, to find that his current work is a solo piece exploring
the evil that inhabits many of Shakespeare's characters.
Shakespeare's Villains, which appears as part of
the Portland International Performance Festival, presents
a collection of bardic pathologies, from the motiveless
Iago to the haunted Macbeths. Berkoff spoke with Willamette
Week about this two-year project as well as the state
of theater in Britain.
Willamette Week: How many of these characters
have you explored through full productions?
Steven Berkoff: Most of them. Coriolanus, Oberon, Macbeth...I've
yet to play Iago or Shylock, though.
Since working on this piece, have any of your interpretations
of these characters changed radically?
Yes, they've changed because I've found more within them.
You learn far more by concentrating on particular roles
as actors once did. Interpretations become very definitive
and special--not necessarily right, but certainly they evolve
into unique specimens. Unfortunately, actors today don't
have the opportunities of 19th-century actors who were allowed
to perfect seven or eight roles. Henry Irving and Edmund
Kean were like rock stars who played their greatest hits
before fans.
What's your opinion of the current crop of Shakespearean
productions in Britain, especially now that the new Globe
has opened?
It's difficult to say, as I haven't seen anything at the
Globe. I've never been tempted after what I've heard...audience
participation, and all that. My kind of theater is so precise
and on a hair's breadth that any randomness would imply
naturalism and vulgarity. So, I haven't seen it. I think
the state of British theater at the moment is improving
slightly. I see some new actors and directors emerging,
so there may actually be hope.
Are you working on any new plays?
I have a new play opening this summer at the Edinburgh
Festival called Messiah, which is an interpretation
of the last days of Jesus.
Will you be in it?
I've decided not to be, though there was the great role
of Satan to consider.
Of the "villains" that you're performing, are there
any plans to move your discoveries into full productions?
I'm thinking of doing Macbeth before I get too tired
to do it. There's just been a production with Anthony Sher
in London, but mine would be quite different. And I'm considering
Othello for myself...just to poke my finger up the
ass of British political correctness.
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