Steven Berkoff: One Man – The Tell-Tale Heart, Actor, Dog, April 19 1994

THEATRE

At Athenaeum Theatre April 19 to 23 April 1994

Reviewer: Kate Herbert around April 22 1994

This review was published in The Melbourne Times after April 22 1994

 

Steven Berkoff likes to be watched; watched with admiration, even adoration. Unlike most theatre actors, he is a celebrity who attracts acolytes, many of whom were present at the opening of One Man. "If he moves clap him," is their motto.

 

For over two hours he is alone on stage. His detractors might suggest that this is because nobody can work with such an ego. Fans would argue that he fills the stage with his enormous presence and needs no supporting cast.

 

In all three pieces: The Tell-Tale Heart, Actor and Dog, Berkoff demonstrates he is a master of theatrical technique. He plays all roles, shifting effortlessly and precisely between madman and old man in The Tell-Tale Heart and between actor, mother, father, various wives and casting directors in Actor. His transformation from Bovva Boy to Bull Terrier in Dog is uncannily accurate and instantaneous.

 

Berkoff is a master of body and voice. His vocal gymnastics are dizzying albeit sometimes unnecessarily elaborate, and his creation of space objects through mime is extraordinary. In fact his skill is so palpable, we often watch the technique not the drama.

 

This is particularly so in The Tell-Tale Heart, Berkoff’s adaptation of Poe's story of a lunatic who murders an old man whose "vulture's eye" distresses him. He seems to spotlight the mechanics of his work by indicating and almost satirising his own method.

 

Berkoff is a masterly clown. The Bovva Boy in Dog, is a terrifying but hilarious portrayal, heightened to the bizarre, of a violent Cockney thug. Clowns utilise repetition to advantage and Berkoff is no exception. We watch him milk a laugh by repeating it over and over, often beyond its natural life (although I suspect the acolytes would have watched till the casting agents came home). He even got laughs from integrating an intrusive aeroplane into the story.

 

His work has always been risky, outrageous, riddled with taboos and often offensive. Remember East? The original draft was too rich even for the progressive actors who read it. Berkoff takes an idea and raises the stakes: " I'll see your grossness and raise you a sadism."

Dog offends with images of the Bovva Boy "tongue-kissing" his pooch who in turn scoffs his vomit. Tasteless - pardon the pun.

 

The most emotionally affecting piece, Actor, is about a permanently "between jobs" actor, is dotted with misogyny which feels uncomfortably like Berkoff's own rather than just that of the character's.

 

There is little emotional contact in these three pieces and although his mastery is unquestionable, one wonders if there is anything for the general public in this show or is it an ego on parade to be stroked by his adoring fellow artists?

 

By Kate Herbert