Caryl Churchill & Steven Berkoff

Caryl Churchill

• English London-born playwright, born 3rd September 1938
• non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, dramatisation of the abuses of power, exploration of sexual politics
• contemporary of Brecht
• Dance-theatre and Theatre of Cruelty
• Cloud Nine (1979), "a farce about sexual politics"
• feminist themes main principle in her work
• Top Girls, Softcops
• Dominic Cooke, artistic director of the Royal Court: "the exciting thing about Caryl is that she always tends to break new ground. The degree of innovation is extraordinary. Every play almost reinvents the form of theatre."
• Invented the standard forward slash "/" representing overlapping dialogue 
• Quality of dialogue 

Sources: wikipedia and Guardian website

Steven Berkoff 

Steven Berkoff was born in Stepney, London. After studying drama and mime in London and Paris, he entered a series of repertory companies and in 1968 formed the London Theatre Group. His plays and adaptations have been performed in many countries and in many languages. Among the many adaptations Berkoff has created for the stage, directed and toured, are Kafka's Metamorphosis and The Trial, Agamemnon after Aeschylus, and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. He has directed and toured productions of Shakespeare's Coriolanus also playing the title role, Richard II, Hamlet and Macbeth, as well as Oscar Wilde's Salome.

Berkoff's original stage plays include East, West, Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Decadence, Harry's Christmas, Massage, Acapulco and Brighton Beach Scumbags. He has performed his trilogy of solo shows, One Man, Shakespeare's Villains and Requiem for Ground Zero, in venues all over the world.

East (1975): "a play of boundless vitality. A piece of roller-coasting invention... Its two central characters are a couple of razor-happy randy tearaways of almost total moral repellence and absolute physical charm... Berkoff razzle-dazzles their lifestyle in a tumult of imagery; the language flashes from Shakespearean parody to the shatteringly profane... Restores one's faith and fills the cup of expectation to overflowing". Daily Mail.

As an actor, Berkoff usually performes as a villain (Octopussy, also played Adolf Hitler)

"Berkoff employs a style of heightened physical theatre known as "total theatre". Drama critic Aleks Sierz describes his Berkoff's dramatic style as "In-yer-face theatre": “the language is usually filthy, characters talk about unmentionable subjects, take their clothes off, have sex, humiliate each another, experience unpleasant emotions, become suddenly violent. At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces audiences to react: either they feel like fleeing the building or they are suddenly convinced that it is the best thing they have ever seen, and want all their friends to see it too. It is the kind of theatre that inspires us to use superlatives, whether in praise or condemnation.”

My thoughts on 'East':

I love the verse, it gives a poetic trill to the cockney colloquialisms and is very modern. The movement was well choreographed and effective, the simple unpretentious scenes are engaging without being fussy. The characters are likeable but the play also manages to transmit some moving messages within its comic and farcical dialogue and monologues. The physicality used when delivering monolgues in an empty set is essential.