I Am HamletGrove Press, 1990 - 209 pages What goes through a man's mind when he is playing Hamlet? How does Shakespeare's best-known play actually work, from the inside? Steven Berkoff is an actor, playwright, and director with an extraordinary talent for conveying powerful ideas and emotions. His production of Hamlet, in which he took the title role, began in Edinburgh in 1979, went on to the Round House in London, and toured throughout Europe for the next two years. The company completed its final performance as guests of Jean-Louis Barrault at his Rond Point Theater, where the audience gave the production a tempestuous ovation. During the tour Berkoff kept a journal and recorded the workings of the play from the director/actor's point of view. On the basis of that diary Berkoff has created an intensely personal analysis of the play with a line-by-line examination of the text and the way he approached it in his production. His detailed observations show how his imagination covers a wide range of human experience--from love and death to the nature of marriage and the messianic fervor of Hamlet. I Am Hamlet not only reveals the mind of a fascinating actor and director at work, it is also a singular encounter with a part that "touches the complete alphabet of human experience" and that every actor feels he is born to play. |
From inside the book
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Page iv
... Acting . I. Title . PR2807.B455 1990 792.9'2 - dc20 89-77130 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid - free paper First American Edition 1990 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I CIP Dedicated to all who journeyed with me and made ...
... Acting . I. Title . PR2807.B455 1990 792.9'2 - dc20 89-77130 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid - free paper First American Edition 1990 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I CIP Dedicated to all who journeyed with me and made ...
Page v
Steven Berkoff. Dedicated to all who journeyed with me and made this possible . Actors Barry Philips Matthew ... actor is a Hamlet struggling to get.
Steven Berkoff. Dedicated to all who journeyed with me and made this possible . Actors Barry Philips Matthew ... actor is a Hamlet struggling to get.
Page vii
... actor such words of compassion , charm , wisdom , wit , moral force , insight , and philosophy . The actor needs to feel those things within his own breast and to touch these words is to set alight a small flame within himself . We all ...
... actor such words of compassion , charm , wisdom , wit , moral force , insight , and philosophy . The actor needs to feel those things within his own breast and to touch these words is to set alight a small flame within himself . We all ...
Page viii
... actor your best tunes will come out of Hamlet and if not then that does not matter but you will be a better actor ... actors as observers watching and reflecting and ready to be called to give their evidence . I wanted no central star ...
... actor your best tunes will come out of Hamlet and if not then that does not matter but you will be a better actor ... actors as observers watching and reflecting and ready to be called to give their evidence . I wanted no central star ...
Page ix
... actors in rehearsal and then added one or two at a time as I worked out a scheme and sketched ideas with my ... actor's point of view . I wanted to show a line by line examination of the text and how we dealt with it in terms of the ...
... actors in rehearsal and then added one or two at a time as I worked out a scheme and sketched ideas with my ... actor's point of view . I wanted to show a line by line examination of the text and how we dealt with it in terms of the ...
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Common terms and phrases
actors arms audience become blood Bob Hornery body cast centre chairs chorus Christopher Plummer Claudius comes corridor court create David Auker death director door drum face FALKLANDS WAR father fear feel felt floor foils follow Fortinbras Gary Whelan Gertrude gesture Ghost give Hamlet hands hear hold Horatio horror imagine John Prior kill King and Queen Laertes laugh leaps look lord Matthew Scurfield mime mind mind's eye mother mouth moves murder night Olivier Ophelia Osric pace passion pause performance play players Plummer poison Polonius Polonius's pull purged rehearsal role Rory Edwards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern round Sally Bentley scene scream seems seen Shakespeare slowly somehow sound speak speech stage stop suddenly sword theatre thing thou thought trying turn Tyrone Guthrie voice waiting walk watching Wolf Kahler words