Barking?
Jacobi's Lear was not our only encounter with a famous actor this week. On Tuesday we saw An Audience With Steven Berkoff in Bracknell.
We've seen Berkoff productions before and knew what to expect - Berkoff the tough East End boy with the confrontational style. Did we get that? No, actually, but it didn't seem to matter. What we got was an ebullient (!) Berkoff who was happy to sit and chat about Russian Jews settling in England (thinking London was New York) and making their way into English society, via... tailoring. Berkoff's father was a tailor, and he enjoyed pointing out to us how many English playwrights are the sons of tailors and how the way a tailor works carries across into the craft of constructing plays.
It was all remarkably genial - not a Berkovian word - and rather more low-key than we'd expected. Fortunately it got more lively in the Q&A session where Berkoff was very funny on his recent experiences in a hotel in Liverpool and justifiably proud in having a whole school of theatrics named after himself.
Definitely worthwhile, then.
We've seen Berkoff productions before and knew what to expect - Berkoff the tough East End boy with the confrontational style. Did we get that? No, actually, but it didn't seem to matter. What we got was an ebullient (!) Berkoff who was happy to sit and chat about Russian Jews settling in England (thinking London was New York) and making their way into English society, via... tailoring. Berkoff's father was a tailor, and he enjoyed pointing out to us how many English playwrights are the sons of tailors and how the way a tailor works carries across into the craft of constructing plays.
It was all remarkably genial - not a Berkovian word - and rather more low-key than we'd expected. Fortunately it got more lively in the Q&A session where Berkoff was very funny on his recent experiences in a hotel in Liverpool and justifiably proud in having a whole school of theatrics named after himself.
Definitely worthwhile, then.