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Shakespeare's
Villains |
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It's always faintly surprising to see someone you associate with screen-acting on the stage; Hollywood stars in the West End, or the girl from Casualty treading the boards in Stratford. To see them acting Shakespeare is even more of a shock All of a sudden you become aware of the weight of dramatic training they have behind them; the years of graft they went through before landing that Eastenders role. What Steven Berkoff has managed to achieve with his wickedly enjoyable production 'Shakespeare's Villains' is to create this effect within a one-man-show, which is part lecture, part comedy, and part spine-tingling portrayal of some of the greatest evildoers ever invented. Looking at the Playhouse programme's publicity program, it's easy to see why Berkoff has come to be an authority on stage villainy. He stares coldly at the camera, all suppressed malevolence and mesmerising eyes, looking a little like Yoda's evil twin… On stage, all in black, energetic and multi-talented, he treats his subject with such relish; it's no surprise that in his film appearances he's most often to be found playing the bad guy. You can't really imagine him being cast as Buttons. The show starts smoothly with a tongue-in-cheek commentary on Othello, peppered with jokes about casting and characters; carrying the audience along until the lights drop and Berkoff launches into one of Iago's baleful soliloquies. We're taken through Richard III, Macbeth, a really brilliant Shylock, and even introduced to two unlikely additions to the roll of villainy: Hamlet and Oberon. Seeing Hamlet roundly mocked, you get the impression that Berkoff's sympathies lie firmly with the real, unashamed baddies. The humour may be a little puerile in places, focusing on easy meat such as Cassio's drunkenness and the ingrained evil of critics, but at times it's hilarious, and the overall frothiness offsets the darker pieces of acting. You don't need to know a huge amount about Shakespeare to enjoy this - well I don't, and I did - but I suspect that the more familiar you are with the characters the more you'll get out of it. After all, this kind of show invites smugness from the audience - a pat on the back when you get a reference, an extra point if you've seen the famous production mentioned. Not that this is a bad thing, and it's not as if the performance wasn't accessible in general. In fact, it's an absolute credit to Berkoff that there was minimal shuffling both from the coiffed dowagers next to me and the A-level class two rows ahead. This is a production that's very hard to pin down. An actor's relationship
with his script, with acting, with his audience; a villain's relationship
with his villainy; the nature of evil from a Shakespearian point of view,
an actor's point of view, an audience's point of view; or a formidable
talent entertaining on an intellectual level - I'm not sure. I suggest
you go and see for yourself. Susie Cogan, 19th April 2004 |
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