Barker and Berkoff Similarities and Differences

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Howard Barker and Steven Berkoff are both very successful drama practitioners. Howard Barker is a practitioner who is 72 years old. He has devised many plays and was at first a history student at university when he started writing. Many actors and people in the acting world call Howard Barker a modern shakespeare. Howard barker has named his style of work “Theatre of catastrophe”, using this phrase to describe his work marks it out from the world giving it a unique sense of the world and allowing him to express what he thinks and feels in his own style of theatre this is also known as an alternative approach to playwriting.

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When performing his plays Howard Barker fragments the audience response. Steven Berkoff is another practitioner who is 81 years old. Berkoff has written many plays and is also, a film actor and a director. In the 1960’s he formed his own theatre group called the london theatre group, this departed from mainstream theatre and started to evolve an innovative, more integrated theatrical language.

One of his theatre groups first performance was called “Metamorphosis” this was originally written by Kafka. Steven Berkoff uses physical theatre in his work this is to emphasise and exaggerate his movements to enforce his messages, sometimes this physical theatre can include mime and non verbal acting which create a more interesting scene for the audience to watch. Many of Berkoff's plays can often tackle subjects which can and will shock or surprise an audience, and some of his performances can contain strong language a disturbing scenes.

Many practitioners have similar styles of writing and putting on a play however sometimes it can be very contrasting and different this is like the styles of Howard Barker and Steven Berkoff. Howard Barker and Steven Berkoff whilst putting on their performances both show similar elements a some very different elements. Both Barker and Berkoff perform their plays using “realism” rather than “naturalism”. “Naturalism” is when the play is performed as if it is real life and using everyday language whereas “realism” is where the play is performed and accurate depiction of the real world, rather than a stylised interpretation. Both men’s work are influenced by famous Practitioner Brecht. However Barker and Berkoff have then grown from him and used his and other practitioners, such as Stanlisvaski’, ideas to help develop their own plays. Berkoff has also been influenced by another practitioner who was named “Artaud”, he was a French poet, dramatist, actor, essayist and theatre director. He was widely recognised as one of the major figure of the twentieth century theatre and the european avant- garde. Another French inspiration of Berkoff's was Jacques Le Coq, he went to study drama and learnt physical theatre and mime in the Ecoles Jacques Le Coq and then went on to create his own styles using physical theatre and minimalism and constructivism movements. He demanded his actors were flexible and agile when performing in front of people and on stage.

Both practitioners work was very well done and performed however Barkers plays don't have a meaning as he believes that the play is important rather than a message. Berkoff’s plays have a meaning to them however he does believe that there are no limits on stage which is why he doesn't mind tackling controversial ideas or themes. When performing his plays Barker’s actors when on stage would speak to one another and address each other, however Berkoff’s actors would perform and they would speak directly to the audience and addressing then as well as the other actors on stage. Howard Barker went and saw a play led by Edward bond, when he went and saw him he criticised it and thought that could go and write a better play which would refund the idea of an inarticulate working class. He started by writing a series of paper that were called ‘Arguments for a theatre.’When he first started to write Barker began with small satirical stories. He claims that he entered into the theatrical world “ignorant of almost every classic text with half a dozen matinees behind me. Modern Barker plays are often set on political things such as sex and violence. Sometimes this lead to the audience not grasping everything much like the autor who did not grasp everything. This links with the fact that Barker thought that art is a problem of understanding not a problem be understood. As art is creative and cannot always be understood and many people have different interpretations of the style of the artwork or performed piece. This leads to the audience having divided opinions and going home disturbed ar amazed. Barkers first successful play was “One afternoon on the 63rd level on the North Face of the pyramid of Cheops the great, which was then broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the year 1969.

Like many plays both men use costume in their performances this can help show the time period and or place of which the play is set in. Both the men used staging in their plays some of their designs are simple for example lines on the floor to create the effect of more rooms in one big space, however Berkoff and Barker both used constructive staging as well. This means that they had different angles and heights for the actors. Using different heights this means that the actors can show different rooms and they can also show hierarchy levels to show who is in charge and who is the leader not only can this help the actors prove a point this also can help with the lighting as they can show different stages through different colours or something that they are trying to show in their performance. . With the levels and angles this also gives the audience a better viewing and makes things seem more realistic as they both directed in the “realism” style. Barkers plays came from an era full of politics. First of all the Lord Chamberlain’s power of censorship had been abolished. After this “realism” that had been so successful for playwrights like Arnold Wesker in the 1950’s, was rejected and replaced by Brechtian-influenced drama.

Steven Berkoff as well as writing plays and performing them was also in a few films these include- Clockwork orange, Rambo and Beverly hills cops, just to name a few. However Howard Barker did not appear in any films but has directed and written some films. When Barker and Berkoff put on their plays they had critics that came and reviewed their plays. Barkers critics has to suffer, meaning that they had to work out for themselves what was going on and why these things are happening like the audience did, Berkoff's critic is already on the audiences side and knows what is going on. Critics of Barker said that he lacks two basic requirements: A cool head, and a fertile intellect. So finding he cannot pursue an argument to the end, he whips himself into a rage of blasphemy, obscenity, gratuitous violence and sensationalism, with every possible effort to shock. Barkers use of obscenities adds to the controversy that surrounds his expression, and crits have not failed to comment upon what they see as it is a lack of purpose. However with Berkoff many critics have found it difficult to define Berkoff’s style, often using terms such as: experimental, avant-garde, expressionist and surrealist. Some of his works have been described as being political in their main messages (like Barkers work), and Berkoff often seems to as comments upon human behaviour and society.

For my performance last year of 13 objects ‘Not him and ‘Only Some Can Take the Strain’ My group used Barkers theories. For example in our perfomance ‘Not him’ the main theme ws love and sex. In our performance the play was import unlike the message in Barkers style this also left the audience divided. Both of the plays were both modern day language and text, this is because Barker is often referred to as the ‘modern day Shakespeare’.In both of our performances we had taken Barkers ideas and techniques to create our own rendition of the play. When creating the plays we used elements of ‘Catastrophic theatre’ and also looked at the work of other practitioners such as Stanlisvaski and we used his ‘method of physical action’ to create physical movements to show what we were saying and thinking.

Overall Both Berkoff and Barker have their own unique styles of performing and directing as we can tell both men are very similar and different and both men express their thoughts and feelings in their pieces making it unique to them and the actors that are performing. As these practitioners have different styles this makes it more interesting for the audience and as well for the critics as they get to see a different piece each time performed in sometimes a completely different style.Both practitioner have won awards for their work Barker has won The Drama Logue award for Outstanding performance in 1993. Berkoff has won three awards these including the April award for best actor in 2017, the Tabloid witch award for the best dramatic actor in 2017 and he has won the SDFCS (San Diego Film Critics Society awards) for best ensemble cast in “44 inch chest” in 2010. Both practitioners have been very successful in performing, writing and directing their plays and films since the 1900’s both Howard Barker and Steven Berkoff have been creating their arts for many years and they still continue today with their directing and writing and sometimes acting. Future and present practitioners will be inspired by Howard Barker and Steven Berkoff in the way that they write, direct and also act as they have and will be a big influencer in drama history.

In order to improve this essay i could add in what i am going to do with Berkoff's work and how his style will help us perform our piece in his style and using different techniques.