Category: theatre

Steven Berkoff: “Again, one suffers the bilge of a critic who in reviewing Othello warbles happily how fortunate we are, that actors no longer black up. As if that’s all there is to playing Othello: a bit of shoe polish on your chops. … To reserve, out of the hundreds of Shakespearean characters, the role of Othello for black people only, is a form of racism in reverse and to me, particularly obnoxious.”

“Probably the closest thing you can compare it to is the fighting in ice hockey. Think about it: an activity somehow both integral and non-essential that many in the audience consider more entertaining than those parts of the performance that require actual talent. But here’s the difference between fighting in hockey and heckling in stand-up comedy, and it’s an essential one: the former is all about the players, while the latter is all about the fans trying to be the players.”

“Bitter Lemons founder Colin Mitchell says he’s responding to the dwindling number of reviews by professional critics amid upheaval in the media industry. Many traditional outlets have retrenched in the face of falling advertising revenues they’d relied on to fund coverage, including arts reviews. He’s asking theater companies themselves to help fill the void.”

“In the beginning, there was Twitter. David Javerbaum – a seasoned comedy writer for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report who has won Peabodys, Emmys, and a Grammy – started the account @TheTweetofGod in 2010. Like God Himself, he quickly gained millions of followers.” (includes audio)

“We’ve been looking at other models for making political theatre. We’ve found that devised theatre, collaboratively made over an intense period of four to five weeks, gives us a chance to react immediately to the changing tensions in the world around us.”

“If by ‘loser’ you’re referring to a man who is greeted eight times a week by a thousand people who stand as one, applauding until their hands are raw, cheering until their voices are spent, whispering, ‘He’s so much better looking in person!,’ and laughing until their faces are contorted in an anguished mask that can best be described as a sort of Bell’s palsy … then yes, I am a loser.”

“Might [race] be erased, no longer an issue between the two men – or for the audience, who just get to watch two top-drawer actors? Or might it be highlighted, even encouraging us to see both as victims of prejudice, an Iago consumed with self-loathing?”

“The idea of a mirth-maker being granted a title was preposterous. No entertainer ever received a knighthood before the actor Henry Irving in 1895.”