Description
Three distinctive adaptations from a master of total theatre, Steven Berkoff fuses all the elements of drama together in a whole theatrical experience. Combining movement and mime with text to achieve a heightened dramatic intensity, Berkoff takes Kafka's stories and transforms them into a powerful dramatic expression of the inhumanity which plagued the twentieth century and continues unchecked today.
Revised with a new foreword which explores the approach Berkoff takes to his total theatre. talks and readings fro the plays to coincide.
About the Author
Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. His plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. Among the many adaptations Berkoff has created for the stage, directed and toured, are Kafka's Metamorphosis and The Trial, Agamemnon after Aeschylus, and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. He has directed and toured productions of Shakespeare's Coriolanus also playing the title role, Richard II, Hamlet and Macbeth, as well as Oscar Wilde's Salome. Berkoff's original stage plays include East, West, Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Decadence, Harry's Christmas, Massage, Acapulco and Brighton Beach Scumbags. He has performed his trilogy of solo shows, One Man, Shakespeare's Villains and Requiem for Ground Zero, in venues all over the world. Steven has acted in films include A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, Under the Cherry Moon, Absolute Beginners and The Krays. He directed and co- starred with Joan Collins in the film version of his play Decadence. He has published a variety of books on the theatre such as the production journals I am Hamlet, Meditations on Metamorphosis and Coriolanus in Deutschland. Berkoff's work has led him to traverse the globe, and his love for travel is apparent in his book Shopping in the Santa Monica Mall: The Journals of a Strolling Player.
Reviews
"Berkoff has a master's ear for vocabulary and rhythm. Everything is heightened - physically, emotionally, intellectually... There's so much to work with and draw from." - Theatre Weekly; "Throughout the play, you find yourself relating to both Gregor, as the one being isolated, but also to his family members who are the cause of that. That makes the show eerily relatable, and it's this quality that allows you to ponder the topic on a deeper level." - everything-theatre.co.uk; "The totality of alienation was stressed through the theatre of shadows. [The family's] greed and stupidity were the forces that concealed, distorted and destroyed what was essential in human nature." - Theatre Journal
Awards
Winner of Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play 1991.
Book Information
ISBN 9781738476909
Author Franz Kafka
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Aurora Metro Books
Publisher Aurora Metro Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm
Revised with a new foreword which explores the approach Berkoff takes to his total theatre. talks and readings fro the plays to coincide.
About the Author
Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. His plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. Among the many adaptations Berkoff has created for the stage, directed and toured, are Kafka's Metamorphosis and The Trial, Agamemnon after Aeschylus, and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. He has directed and toured productions of Shakespeare's Coriolanus also playing the title role, Richard II, Hamlet and Macbeth, as well as Oscar Wilde's Salome. Berkoff's original stage plays include East, West, Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Decadence, Harry's Christmas, Massage, Acapulco and Brighton Beach Scumbags. He has performed his trilogy of solo shows, One Man, Shakespeare's Villains and Requiem for Ground Zero, in venues all over the world. Steven has acted in films include A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, Under the Cherry Moon, Absolute Beginners and The Krays. He directed and co- starred with Joan Collins in the film version of his play Decadence. He has published a variety of books on the theatre such as the production journals I am Hamlet, Meditations on Metamorphosis and Coriolanus in Deutschland. Berkoff's work has led him to traverse the globe, and his love for travel is apparent in his book Shopping in the Santa Monica Mall: The Journals of a Strolling Player.
Reviews
"Berkoff has a master's ear for vocabulary and rhythm. Everything is heightened - physically, emotionally, intellectually... There's so much to work with and draw from." - Theatre Weekly; "Throughout the play, you find yourself relating to both Gregor, as the one being isolated, but also to his family members who are the cause of that. That makes the show eerily relatable, and it's this quality that allows you to ponder the topic on a deeper level." - everything-theatre.co.uk; "The totality of alienation was stressed through the theatre of shadows. [The family's] greed and stupidity were the forces that concealed, distorted and destroyed what was essential in human nature." - Theatre Journal
Awards
Winner of Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play 1991.
Book Information
ISBN 9781738476909
Author Franz Kafka
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Aurora Metro Books
Publisher Aurora Metro Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm
