An Actor's Lament @ Assembly Hall

An Actor's Lament by Steven Berkoff comes to the Fringe to reveal the mystical world behind the curtain, the action behind the action. 

Drawing on over fifty years of acting experience, Berkoff has put together a comedy about what happens backstage in the space between the director's barking, the playwright's vision, and the critics' reviews. This is his first verse play since Decadence (1981), and features himself alongside Jay Benedict and Andree Bernard. Through this comedy, he showcases the life and problems actors experience. As Berkoff himself pointed out:

"After years and years of working as an actor, you come up with a few comments about the nature of the trade and its difficulties."

A Fringe-goer since 1966, Berkoff has often been associated with his very physical re-interpretations of epic Greek tragedies and classic works, like Oedipus (after Sophocles) and Agamemnon, as well as his own adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Nonetheless, he has done his fair share of comedies. When asked about the transition between the two, he commented: 

“Comedy is merely the other side of the coin. And I particularly love writing comedy.”

An opportunity not to be missed, An Actor’s Lament will be at the Assembly Hall until 20 August.