Richard II in New York - Berkoff, Steven

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Résumé :
Steven Berkoff was asked to direct Shakespeare's Richard II in New York early 1994. It was a project he found fascinating: performing an Elizabethan play within the scrapers of Manhattan and the still rotting slums of the Lower East Side, between the steaming breath oozing out from the cracked pipes and the brutality of modern New York speak. New York became the backdrop and the energy centre which charged him each day and fed his inspiration. This book offers a wonderful insight into the many characters, challenges and places that were integral to the project and details how gradually the production took form. Served by a first-rate company that worked incredibly hard, the achievement was a critically acclaimed production and the fulfilment of a personal goal to direct the Bard. NEW YORK POST This morning I have joy to report - so let the trumpets sound and the canons roar! Last night at the Anspacher Auditorium of the Joseph Papp Public Theater, there opened a production of The Tragedy of Richard II which can hold its own with the world's best in Shakespearean stagings. NEW YORK SUNDAY TIMES The Tragedy of Richard II now being given an exceptionally stylish production by Steven Berkoff. Mr Berkoff's production, which, among many virtues, is so well and clearly spoken and so clean of dramatic line that it's accessible from start to finish... THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER NEW YORK - They'll be talking about this Richard II for years.

Biographie:
Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, East London, and first studied acting at the City Literary Institute in Holborn when he was nineteen. Following full time training at the Webber Douglas School of Drama, he worked extensively in repertory theatre in England and Scotland, doing every job from understudy to stage management. In 1968 he formed his own company, The London Theatre Group. Through mime, ensemble work and voice, the group developed their own innovative theatrical language. Berkoff's encounter with the great mime teacher Jacques Lecoq in Paris was seminal in this. Steven Berkoff's plays include 'East', 'West', 'Sink the Belgrano!', 'Kvetch', 'Ritual in Blood', 'Oedipus', 'Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion', 'The Secret Love Life of Ophelia'. 'Decadence', 'Sit and Shiver', 'Greek' (adapted as an opera by Mark Anthony Turnage), 'Harry's Christmas', 'Acapulco', 'Massage', 'Sturm und Drang' and 'Brighton Beach Scumbags'. He has written an autobiography, 'Free Association' and many theatre books including 'I am Hamlet', 'Overview' and 'Meditations on Metamorphosis'. Among Berkoff's film credits are 'A Clockwork Orange', 'Barry Lyndon', 'Octopussy', 'The Tourist', 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and his own version of Poe's 'The Tell Tale Heart'.