Overview

What goes through a man's mind when he is playing Hamlet? How does Shakespeare's best known play actually work, from the inside? And what effect does playing Hamlet have on a man's life? Steven Berkoff nine years ago directed a production of ""Hamlet"" in which he took the title role, and here are his scene-by-scene observations, which cover the whole range of human experience - from love and death, to life in Britain now. ""I am Hamlet"" not only shows the mind of an actor at work, but it is also an expression of the lasting authority of Shakespeare's play.

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Americans know Berkoff primarily as the director of Baryshnikov in the anomalous Broadway production of Kafka's Metamorphosis. In Europe, however, his 1979-81 production of Hamlet turned more than a few heads, not only because of its experimental approach to the classic, but because Berkoff directed - and played the leading role. As this Hamlet production diary shows, Berkoff's effort was propelled by arrogance and courage in equal measure. Frequently, he takes the opportunity to rail against wooden past productions of the play (particularly those mounted by the RSC), the current tendency for directors to steal the limelight from actors (even Peter Brook gets a bashing), and the playwright himself, who, according to Berkoff, erred in creating characters that tend to be cardboard cutouts designed to make Hamlet look good. Traditionalists will be appalled at Berkoff's irreverent attitude toward the text, which has been radically cut (sometimes, it seems, precisely to make Hamlet look good). But actors and directors approaching this most difficult of plays should be interested to learn just how Berkoff staged it and what he took each line to mean - both literally and emotionally. What is missing in this very personal promptbook, however, is a record of the process by which the staged results were arrived at - as in Anthony Sher's much more satisfying The Year of the King (1987 - not reviewed). Furthermore, this line-by-line dissection of the text will prove rough going for those who didn't actually see Berkoff's Hamlet, since the author's prose is often too vague or blustery to be descriptive. In short, My kingdom for a videotape. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, East London and first studied acting at the City Literary Institute in Holborn when he was nineteen. Following full-time training at the Webber Douglas School of Drama, he worked extensively in repertory theatre in England and Scotland, doing every job from understudy to stage management. In 1968 he formed his own company, the London Theatre Group. Through mime, ensemble work and voice, the group developed their own innovative theatrical language. Berkoff's encounter with the great mime teacher Jacques Lecoq in Paris was seminal in this. Steven Berkoff's plays include East, West, Sink the Belgrano!, Kvetch, Ritual in Blood, Oedipus, Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Decadence, Sit and Shiver, Greek (adapted as an opera by Mark Anthony Turnage), Harry's Christmas, Acapulco, Massage, Sturm und Drang and Brighton Beach Scumbags. He has written an autobiography, Free Association, and many theatre books including I Am Hamlet, Overview and Meditations on Metamorphosis. Among Berkoff's film credits are A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, Octopussy, The Tourist, The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, and his own version of The Tell Tale Heart.

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