Modern Transformations of the Comic: the Theater of Steven Berkoff and the Bulgarian Comedy Actor Cover Image
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Съвременни трансформации на комедийното: театърът на Стивън Бъркоф и българският комедиен изпълнител
Modern Transformations of the Comic: the Theater of Steven Berkoff and the Bulgarian Comedy Actor

Author(s): Kamelia Nikolova
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Институт за изследване на изкуствата, Българска академия на науките

Summary/Abstract: The text traces the changes in the comedy theater genre and more concretely the comic performances during the last few years in theater practice in general and in Bulgaria in particular. The hypothesis and arguments are based on one of the emblematic examples of contemporary hyper-modern comedy - one man show of the British actor, playwright and director Steven Berkoff Shakespeare s Villains. Created in 1998 and still performed as an ingenious collage of commentaries on Iago, Richard III and Macbeth, it offers new comic sources and dramatic comic forms as well as new comic strategies for the actors. The text examines in details these new performance strategies and on the basis of this formulates the characteristics of the specific "theater of self-presentation" (in-yer-face) (Aleks Sierz) of Berkoff. Then an attempt is made such characteristics to be outlined in some performances in Bulgaria during the last decade.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 5
  • Page Range: 80-85
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Bulgarian