Alison

I must confess I have always had grave doubts about Berkoff: I recall years
ago seeing an article by him in one of the Sundays, he'd gone on a train
journey (on the stopper that runs all stations from Euston to New St, plus I
think the North Birmingham line) to observe Central England: on approaching
Birmingham he waxed supercillious at noticing the place ( I typoed there
'palace') names, such as Stetchford, Lozells, Gravelly Hill, Witton etc  I
recall him despight as if the names themselves were images of ugliness of
life. What came across was a thin-lipped metropolitan sneer, he seemed to be
projecting his lack of feeling onto others' lives.

Now the bit you quote from him, which I assume is written, not just casual
remarks (like most e-mail!) has:

>a scream or a shout of pain. It is
> revolt. ...East could be the east side of any city where the unveneered
> blast off at each other in their own compounded argot as if the ordinary
> language of polite communication was as dead as the people who uttered
it...
> The acting has to be loose and smacking of danger ... it must smart and
whip
> out like a fairy's wicked lash..."

The 'unveneered' ??? The 'ordinary language of polite conversation' ????
There be dragons lurking there, like in old maps, like in unexamined
asssumptions. I would note that 'people blasting off at each other' is a
strange thing to be implicitly endorsed here. Who is to claim ownership of
compounded argots, who is to say that polite conversation does not hide
screams or shouts of pain, who is to say who is dead who utters? Questions,
mostly, are all we really have.

As for 'a fairy's wicked lash', oh dear, I dread to think what kind of
response that simile whould elicit in the eat sides.

Struggling not to laugh in this east in centre here.

Care

Dave



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 2:29 AM
Subject: Theatre Notes


> On TN this week:
>
> REVIEW: EAST by Steven Berkoff, directed by John Bolton. La Mama at the
> Carlton Courthouse until April 1.
>
> This marvellous production of East reminds you how powerful language can
be
> in the theatre. In his first, and to my mind his best play, Steven Berkoff
> forged an outrageous poetry from the collision of Shakespearean rhythms
and
> cockney slang, creating a heightened theatrical vernacular that is at once
> obscene, audacious, dark and beautiful.
>
> East premiered just over 30 years ago, but Berkoff's brash originality
> shines as freshly as ever. Its language is reminiscent of Anthony Burgess'
s
> A Clockwork Orange , in the film of which Berkoff acted shortly before he
> wrote East : there is the same extreme metaphoric pressure and kinetic
> energy, the same ecstatic violence. But unlike A Clockwork Orange ,East is
a
> celebration of the "energetic waste" of youth, an exuberant aria of damage
> and desire.
>
> Set in London's East End in the late 1960s, the London of Berkoff's own
> adolescence, the play is, as he says, "a scream or a shout of pain. It is
> revolt. ...East could be the east side of any city where the unveneered
> blast off at each other in their own compounded argot as if the ordinary
> language of polite communication was as dead as the people who uttered
it...
> The acting has to be loose and smacking of danger ... it must smart and
whip
> out like a fairy's wicked lash..."
>
> Read more http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>
> PLUS: The Ideology of Theatre: Playwright and critic Walter A. Davis has a
> brilliant and thought-provoking essay just up at MCW News which takes
apart
> the tired old left/right binaries which infect discussions of political
> theatre. It's a must-read for anyone interested in (or depressed about)
the
> possibilities of theatrical art. And it's absolutely applicable to
> ideologies at work in Australian theatre.
>
> Read more http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>
> All the best
>
> Alison
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead:  http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com