Steven Berkoff

Advantages: Energy, dynamism, poetry, humour & rude words (gosh!)
Disadvantages: Not for the easily-offended.

...Despite possessing an ego the size of Hackney, Steven Berkoff is considered by many to be one of the most significant figures of late 20th century theatre. His earliest plays tended to be adaptations of writers such as Kafka and Poe, but those are not included in this two-volume set of plays. Instead, we begin with ‘East’, the play that gave a worried world its first taste of uncensored ‘Berkoff-style’ drama: a combination of pseudo-Shakespearian verse, Cockney slang, and expletives guaranteed to raise the hackles of Daily Mail readers everywhere. The disgusting, beautiful, dangerous poetry of Berkoff’s plays brings back a transgressive and confrontational style of theatre too long absent from the British stage. This is equally true of ‘West’, the second play in the volume, which is also set in Berkoff’s native London. But Berkoff’s... Read review

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...Steven Berkoff is one of todays best writers and perfromers. "West" proves this. It is a sort of sequel to "East", but the characters could be anyone. Based in London's East End, it follows the story of a gang leader, Mike who is torn between his mates, and his new found love, a girl calld Sylv. The play is filled with beautiful language, a lot of it taken from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", which Berkoff has a certain love for. The play heads towards a great fight between Mike, and Curly the leader of a West End gang, The Hoxton Mob. A wonderful script which is very hard to be perfomed due to the reputation it has now got. But a thoroughly good read.... Read review

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Advantages: Lovely language, interesting stories
Disadvantages: May take people a while to get the hang of his writing

...Steven Berkoff Plays 1 contains: EAST, WEST, GREEK, SINK THE BELGRANO, MASSAGE and LUNCH. Steven Berkoff is one of the foremost and respected writers in the UK. He is perhaps coming to the end of his era for the press, but not for audiences. "East" is a tale of Mike, a young lad from London in a dire state of unemployment and poverty. His dad treating him like a typical yob, his friends looking up to him, and his mother terrified about what will happen to him. "East" gritty, hard and very interetsing read on young life in 1970's London. "West" is the unofficial sequel to "East" again, the lead character being Mike, but not necesarily the same Mike. The difference between "East" and "West" is that there is a woman involved in Mike's life and a conflict ensues - does Mike stay with his woman, or does he follow his friends in a battle... Read review

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