Product Description

Steven Berkoff is the playwright, director and actor whom theatre scholars have chosen largely to disregard. Since the 1960's, however, this notorious Cockney enfant terrible and 'scourge of the Shakespeare industry' has left an imprint on modern British theatre that has been impossible to ignore. This is the first thorough and in-depth study of this contentious artist, and examines the wide-ranging strategies adopted by Berkoff in the construction and projection of his larger-than-life public persona. This book is not a traditional biography but a critical investigation into the dynamic processes involved in the self-mythologisation of a theatre artist famously concerned with laying himself bare in his plays and performances. Robert Cross examines all of Berkoff's published works, and also examines his film performances, his close self-identification with iconic individuals, his ambiguous relationship with Thatcherism and his use of his East End working-class Jewish background. With its unique interdisciplinary approach, this book not only fills a large gap in theatre scholarship but also contributes a great deal to our understanding, in the post modern era, of the role of performance in identity formation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141802 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Robert Cross is Professor in the Institute for Language and Culture at Doshisha University, Kyoto

Customer Reviews

Witty, bold, provocative and well-informed
I found this study of Steven Berkoff refreshing, witty, bold and informative. Robert Cross' analysis of Berkoff's self-mythologising is incisive and well-informed. The chapters range comprehensively across diverse material, including Berkoff's early life in the East End, his work with the London Theatre Group, his plays, his autobiography and his politics. There is just nothing else out there on Berkoff and for my taste this book fills a great gap. As a teacher of drama I have long been aware of the tremendous but sometimes questionable influence that Berkoff exerts on young actors and other theatre practitioners. This study - thorough and courageous - takes the bull by the horns and leads the reader through Berkoff's career. Not a palatable read for the diehard Berkoff' fans out there, but a very necessary and corrective assessment of a controversial figure in British theatre. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern drama.

Shockingly bad. Intellectual, prejudiced & turgid.
The publishers claim that this "long-awaited and lively study"... "the first thorough and in-depth study of this contentious artist"... "not only fills a large gap in theatre scholarship but also contributes a great deal to our understanding in the postmodern era of the role of performance in identity formation".

Well, they have to say something - but that's rubbish!

Astonishingly Mr Cross acknowledges Berkoff in his credits for granting him an interview and answering his letters, although the product (and one supposes the methodology also) of this "in-depth study" is conspicuously lacking in evidence of any in-depth consultation with Berkoff's main collaborators or indeed the man himself.

This is a lamentably unreadable exercise in intellectual constipation, which fails to shed any new light on its subject, a turgid hatchet job, in which the author, with a written style as anal as his argument, merely hammers away at his oh-so original theory that Berkoff is nothing more than an egomaniac.

If you want to read a witty slagging off of Berkoff do a search for "Charles Spencer Berkoff".

Far from being "provocative and informative" as the publishers claim, "students at undergraduate and postgraduate level as well as specialist academic researchers and teachers" should ignore this entirely.