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Steven Berkoff was asked to direct Shakespeare’s Richard II in New York early
1994. It was a project he found fascinating: performing an Elizabethan play within the scrapers of Manhattan and the still rotting slums of the Lower East Side, between the steaming breath oozing out from the cracked pipes and the brutality of modern New York speak. New York became the backdrop and the energy centre which charged him each day and fed his inspiration. This book offers a wonderful insight into the many characters, challenges and places that were integral to the project and details how gradually the production took form. Served by a first-rate company that worked incredibly hard, the achievement was a critically acclaimed production and the fulfilment of a personal goal to direct the Bard. Reviews of Richard II: NEW YORK SUNDAY TIMES BERKOFF DIRECTS A QUIRKY, STYLISH RICHARD II The Tragedy of Richard II now being given an exceptionally stylish production by Steven Berkoff in the Anspacher Theater at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Mr Berkoff’s production, which, among many virtues, is so well and clearly spoken and so clean of dramatic line that it’s accessible from start to finish... NEW YORK POST - FRIDAY APRIL 1,1994 BERKOFF DOES RIGHT BY THE BARD by Clive Barnes It is rare to find much that is festive about Shakespeare as performed by the New York Shakespeare Festival. But this morning I have joy to report - so let the trumpets sound and the canons roar! Last night at the Anspacher Auditorium of the Joseph Papp Public Theater, there opened a production of The Tragedy of Richard II which can hold its own with the world’s best in Shakespearean stagings. THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER MONDAY APRIL 4 1994 IT’S A VERY LONG ‘RICHARD II’ AND CERTAIN TO BE LONG REMEMBERED By Clifford A. Ridley NEW YORK - They’ll be talking about this Richard II for years. They’re still talking, after all, about the jackbooted Coriolanus that Steven Berkoff staged for the Public Theater back in 1988 - a memorable production that pales in audacity beside Berkoff’s Edwardian Richard in the same building. |
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