Steven Berkoff
Shakespeare
Shakespeare is a monodrama project by Steven Berkoff, English actor, screenwriter, playwright, director and one of the pioneers of “In-yer-face theatre”. The monoproject is a mixture of lecture, comedy and masterful interpretations of the famous monologues of Shakespeare’s villains. It premiered to great acclaim at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London in 1998 and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award.
Berkoff first discusses Shakespeare’s genius and the challenging work that awaits an actor tackling his works. On an empty stage and without costumes, he uses humour and satire to tackle the negative characters in Shakespeare’s plays, such as Iago, Richard III, Macbeth, Shylock ...
He makes a brief introduction of each of the negative characters and discusses the motives for their actions in various representations that he has experienced. All villains have a thing in common – they have not received “the milk of human kindness” and they take revenge with their evil deeds. They find a substitute for love in gaining power and enjoy instilling fear in other people. Berkoff does not forget to mention that the villains tend to flourish when society is in economic and political crisis. He explains why men are much more likely to succumb to revenge than women. In a humorous way, he whips theatre reviewers, talks about the hardship of acting and versatility of experienced actors, the difference between creating a film and a theatre production, adds an anecdote here and there and in between gets bloody real with individual negative characters …
Shakespeare's Villains, 1998
Monocomedy
First Slovenian production
Premiere: 7. January 2023
Performance length is 1 hour and 30 minutes and has no pause.
Creators
Author of the concept, translator, author of introductory text and actor
Sebastian Cavazza
Dramaturg
Eva Mahkovic
LANGUAGE CONSULTANT
Maja Cerar
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Boštjan Kos
SOUND DESIGNER
Sašo Dragaš
Marimba
Aleksandra Šuklar
Skull creator
Žiga Lebar
After graduating from AGRFT, actor Sebastian Cavazza enrolled in a post-graduate specialisation in acting and film directing. After a long period of working in the Slovenian Youth Theatre and a few years of “freelance work”, he settled at the Ljubljana City Theatre. In addition to the many outstanding roles he has created on the stage, he has also made a name as a film actor, both locally and abroad. Sebastian Cavazza is an artist who loves to explore new horizons. He was one of the co-founders of the Studio for the Research on the Art of Acting back in 1995, and has been involved in the concept of a web series and numerous radio plays. In search of exciting challenges, he will create his own acting score based on Berkoff's motifs.
Opening in December 2022 on the Small Stage