Steven Berkoff Plays
Play Review
While writing the post about the Steven Berkoff play Kvetch, I bought his collection Plays 2 which had the text for Kvetch and I was able to read through the other plays as well. Here is a short discussion of the other plays in this collection. Berkoff has an introduction about the plays and provides valuable hints.
1. Decadence. This play could be subtitled "Collapse". Berkoff mentions that he is reviewing the segment of English society that could be named “upper class”. People in this segment have an exaggerated accent and place themselves somewhere - at least according to Berkoff - with the pleasure they get from hunting innocent animals.
In this play - first performed in 1987 - Berkoff provides the talking and action features of two couples - Helen-Steve and Les-Sybil - that consist of exaggeration and are almost like “acting” with an uninterrupted narrative. According to stage directives, the same two actors will play the two couples and only the posture and acting will change going from one couple to the other.
A short passage from the first scene:
HELEN: How sweet of you to come on time / bastard! sweet darling! my you do look so divine. I’ve been so bored / have a drink. I’ve been so bored / have a drink / what…? / Of course! a drambuie with soda and a splash of Cinzano… with masses of ice / I’ve been so bored tearing round to find just what would enchant you to eat me for breakfast (Raising skirt) charmant n’est ce pas / does it make you go all gooey / does it send spasms up and down your spine / enough ice! sweety you do look nice. Do you like my legs? / aren’t my frillies sweet / does it make you get just a little on heat / kiss me / gently / don’t smudge now / just a touch / a graze won’t be a trice / I’ll get ready / so late I couldn’t find a fucking taxi / oh I hate to miss the first scene the first embrace….
… and so on, continue the long dialogues. Dialogues based on hedonism, narratives on sexual performance stories, unemotional talks delivered with fake politeness… Berkoff’s play seems to reflect the most negative aspects of this upper-middle-class life - that he seems to be very bored of - with a kind of stream-of-consciousness. He has adapted the play into a film that Joan Collins and himself played in, but the film seems to get only 5 points out of 10 on the IMDB database.
2. Kvetch. Detailed analysis in this earlier post.
3. Acapulco. Berkoff wrote this play while he was in Acapulco waiting to take part in Sylvester Stallone's Rambo 2 and he was inspired by the extras playing the prisoners of war in the film sitting each night at the bar and sharing that day’s experience. The play that was first performed in 1990 in Los Angeles is in a sense a documentary, since the play includes some dialogues verbatim, according to the author’s notes. I don’t find it a very interesting piece.
4. Harry's Christmas. Berkoff has covered the loneliness some people have to go through at Christmas time, in this one-scene monologue. Harry guesses the number of cards he is going to receive at Christmas and believes he will have a good Christmas if the number goes above a certain value. He re-iterates what he plans (or does not plan) to do and while he shares it with the audience, he answers a ringing phone or calls an old friend, but despite all his efforts, his destiny is to stay alone. He starts swallowing pills and slowly slides towards oblivion. Depressive story, but a well-written monologue.
5. Brighton Beach Scumbags. This play was inspired by Berkoff’s personal experience and investigates the empty lives of people who are attracted by the sea and huddle around it, their homophobia and how their prejudices could easily convert into violence.
6. Dahling You Were Marvellous. In perhaps the most ironic play in the book, Berkoff picks on a circle that he knows best - the theatre circle - with a very popular London restaurant as background. Theatre people slowly fill the restaurant after a successful premier, they smile at each other while making fun of them behind their backs, make exaggerated shows of respect, determine their status in the restaurant with their roles in the play and continue their regular lives. Berkoff teases the theatre world with characters such as the American Hollywood actor having his debut theatre act in London or the aged and “respected” director. I think this is the play I liked best along with Kvetch in this book.
7. Dog. I don’t know what to say about this play. The same actor plays a man and his dog, and then he tells us about his dog in a short soliloquy.
8. Actor. In this monologue, an actor tells his friends and family about his quite boring life and his unsuccessful career.
I know that Berkoff has quite popular plays within the scope of the Edinburg Fringe and he has got several awards. I was glad to read these few plays since they introduced me to the world of a modern playwright somewhere outside mainstream theatre.