Book description
Long considered the enfant terrible of the British theatre Â- as
actor, director and writer Â- and famous for such startling
productions as Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and The Trial, Oscar
Wilde's Salomé and Budd Schulberg's On the Waterfront, among many
others, Steven Berkoff is original in everything he does. Now, in this
captivating book, he shares scenes from his own colourful theatrical
life. In Tales from an Actor's Life, Berkoff takes us on an informal
tour of his extraordinary career. Using the third person to thinly
disguise and protect the guilty, he is never less than entertaining
and forthright in his accounts. Berkoff has seen it all, and here
recalls his first job and the first line he ever uttered on stage, his
early touring dates and disasters (and even romances) in rep, a
traumatic audition for a revered Peter Brook, visiting Kirk Douglas at
his home in L. A. and playing Hamlet the Berkoff way. Romantic though
an actor's life may seem to be, clearly it is often tough and laced
with tears. But there is laughter and camaraderie too, and in these
delightful tales Berkoff gives the reader a real insight and feeling
of what it is like to tread the boards, and the passion, work and
intuition that goes into creating a role.
