Shakespeare is a monodrama project by Steven Berkoff, English actor, screenwriter, playwright, director and one of the pioneers of the "u fris"theater. Monoproject is a kind of mixture of lecture, comedy and masterful interpretations of the famous monologues of Shakespeare's villains.
It was premiered with great success in 1998 at London's Ro alum Ha Alummarket theatre and won the Laurence Olivier Award.
Berkoff first talks about Shakespeare's genius and how demanding work awaits an actor who copes with his works. On an empty stage and without costumes, he devotes himself with humor and satire to negative heroes from Shakespeare's plays, such as Jago, Richard III., Macbeth, Sh Animllock …
He briefly introduces each of the negative characters to us and talks about the motives behind his actions and the different portrayals he has experienced. All villains have in common that they have not received the "milk of human goodness" in their lives and that they take revenge with their evil deeds. They find compensation for love in gaining strength and enjoy instilling fear in others. Berkoff does not forget to mention that the bad guys get especially excited when society is in an economic or political crisis. It explains to us why men are much more likely to succumb to such vindictiveness than women. He slyly scolds theater reviews, talks about the ailments of the acting profession and the ingenuity of experienced actors, about the differences between creating a film and a theatrical production, here and there he serves up some anecdote, and in the meantime he really bloody enters into individual negative characters …
Sebastian Cavazza designed his own acting score based on the motifs of Berkoff's template.
Shakespeare je monodramski projekt Stevena Berkoffa, angleškega igralca, scenarista, dramatika, režiserja in enega od pionirjev gledališča »u fris«. Monoprojekt je nekakšna mešanica predavanja, komedije in mojstrskih interpretacij znamenitih monologov Shakespearovih zlobnežev.
Z velikim uspehom je bil premierno uprizorjen leta 1998 v londonskem gledališču Royal Haymarket in bil ovenčan z nagrado Laurence Olivier.
Berkoff najprej spregovori o Shakespearovi genialnosti in o tem, kako zahtevno delo čaka igralca, ki se spopada z njegovimi deli. Na praznem odru in brez kostumov se s humorjem in satiro posveča negativnim junakom iz Shakespearovih iger, kot so Jago, Rihard III., Macbeth, Shylock …
Vsakega od negativnih likov nam na kratko predstavi ter spregovori o motivih za njegova dejanja in različnih upodobitvah, ki jih je doživel. Vsem zlobnežem je skupno, da v življenju niso bili deležni »mleka človeške dobrote« in da se s svojimi zlimi dejanji maščujejo. Nadomestilo za ljubezen najdejo v pridobivanju moči in uživajo v tem, da drugim vlivajo strah. Berkoff ne pozabi omeniti, da se negativci še posebej razbohotijo, kadar je družba v ekonomski ali politični krizi. Razloži nam, zakaj takšni maščevalnosti veliko pogosteje podlegajo moški kakor ženske. Hudomušno ošvrkne gledališke kritike, spregovori o tegobah igralskega poklica in iznajdljivosti izkušenih igralcev, o razlikah med ustvarjanjem filma in gledališke uprizoritve, tu in tam postreže s kakšno anekdoto, vmes pa krvavo zares vstopa v posamezne negativne like …
Sebastian Cavazza je po motivih Berkoffove predloge oblikoval lastno igralsko partituro.