September 17, 2002
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu
Renowned British actor Steven Berkoff performs Shakespeare’s Villains at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Steven Berkoff in Shakespeare’s Villains
- One of the foremost actors of his generation
- Highly acclaimed as a playwright and director
- Most famous for his roles as the consummate bad guy in films like Rambo and Beverly Hills Cop
- Saturday, October 26 / 8 pm
- UCSB Campbell Hall
- General: $25/$22, UCSB students: $19/$16
- Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Brilliant British actor Steven Berkoff performs his gripping one-man show Shakespeare’s Villains: A Master Class in Evil on Saturday, October 26 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. As dominant a figure on any stage as he is a giant of the English theater, Berkoff has worked in the performing arts for more than 40 years, written 21 plays, adapted works by Kafka and Aeschylus and developed a global following. The New York Times insists, “In his one-man show Shakespeare’s Villains, which is part pedagogy, part snippy stand-up and part tour de force acting dazzle, Mr. Berkoff zips through a lecture on a cache of Shakespearean characters with the kind of élan that can turn indifferent students into drama majors.”
Shakespeare’s Villains is Berkoff’s decidedly opinionated look at the dastardly in the Bard’s work, and makes the case for seven evildoers, including several surprises: Iago, Richard III, Macbeth, Shylock, Hamlet, Coriolanus and Oberon. While dispensing wisdom about acting and the dark corners of the human psyche, Berkoff also delivers one powerhouse acting turn after another, even at one point playing four characters during Polonius’s death scene from Hamlet. Berkoff is both flamboyant and meticulous, getting the most out of his elastic facial features and his deep, wide-ranging voice.
Berkoff studied drama in London and Paris and performed with repertory companies—being named one of England’s top up-and-coming actors by the Sunday Times in 1965—before forming the London Theatre Group in 1968. In addition to his fiery brand of acting, in 1975 he started to write, winning acclaim for his first original play, East. He has since written numerous plays including West, Kvetch, Sturm und Drang, Brighton Beach Scumbags and Messiah. His most recent work is “Requiem for Ground Zero,” a moving and evocative hour-long performance poem about the events of September 11.
That Berkoff is attracted to the darker side of human nature is little surprise. An iconoclast known for speaking his mind, he issued a death threat to critic Nicholas de Jongh who panned his 1979 version of Hamlet. The threat was taken so seriously it led to police protection for de Jongh. Berkoff has helped finance his theater and writing careers by taking roles in films and television, generally playing the heavy. He is probably best known in the United States for such work, bringing to life a wickedly-compelling rogues’ gallery in films like Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, The Krays, Octopussy and A Clockwork Orange. He even played Hitler, in the television movie of Herman Wouk’s novel War and Remembrance. The Independent UK, only half-jokingly, writes, “He does everything menacingly. Possibly he washes his sock menacingly.”
Steve Berkoff is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Sandman Inn. His performance and residency are supported by funds from the Michael Douglas Visiting Artists Program, UCSB Department of Dramatic Art. Tickets are $25 and $22 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.