Research portfolio: Berkoff

In this blog I will be researching the aspects of the practitioner Berkoff. Having going to Jacques le coq theatre school, Berkoff picked up some techniques and made him his own. As Jacques le coq influenced Berkoff, he was inspired by historical physical theatre.

Berkoff is a great practioners who has developed physical theatre and made the style his own. Berkoff used the style of clockwork and mime mostly but he has used other techniques as well.

Berkoff's play metamorphosis his physicality is a lot different to other people the way the he is placed the physical aspect is interesting with his arms crossed over each other and he is down low with he head up. This stance is a lot for interesting to watch instead of him being upright with his posture. The way he moves throughout the whole piece is robotic the way he keeps that postiton the whole time makes it more interesting to watch. His physical style is exaggerated to make the style more interesting. For example if you were eating at the dinner table you would have certain movements that are over the top so the audience can see what they are doing without having props in their hands such a knife and fork and a table. Theses movements are mimed are repeated to make the piece more creepy and grotesque.
Berkoff says it is important to
' to see how I could bring mime together with the spoken word as its opposite partner creating the form and structure of the piece'

Techniques Berkoff uses:

Clockwork: Clockwork is a series of movement which involve miming certain objects. For example a knife and fork. Clockwork looks like robotic movements coming together. When different movement are done at the same time it looks creepy and scary. In Metamorphosis the clockwork routine is in time with the music. Clockwork is a lot of fun to use as you don't normally do it in everyday situations.

Looking at the camera/audience: Berkoff uses the audience a lot of show different meaning and to make it more spooky or for comedy. For example thinking about something else that you don't want to say to the person is said to the audience. Many actor and actress do this now. For example in his play East a female character says a monologue with other actors in the scene but she says the monologue and looks at the audience at times to add humour.

This is a brilliant example of looking at the camera because of the character looks at the audience for humour because it is a monologue aswell but it works in a berkoff style.

Pitch: Berkoff uses a sound in his performance. It is a similar thing to a sound scape but different. For example everyone with a one vowel sound but in different pitch. This makes it usual but effective. Also using vowels sound you can experiment and make it a into a conversation. In the workshop we played around with the feelings of saying the vowel. For example fear,sadness, happiness. Also we did another exercise when we closed our eyes and picked a note to hum. This exercise felt uncomfortable doing this as everyone was doing different pitch were clashes. On the other hand it would work in a performance and a structured way as it matches Berkoff's style.

Mime: I think that mime comes into Berkoff because they use mime to enhance the style more grotesque feel. For example the in metophosis they didn't use chairs they bent their knees to look like they were sat on chairs.

The language that he uses is explores Shakespearian to create a complexity but pairing it with a low cockney slang and swearing. Complex language that an audience has to focus means that they rely on the action to understand the plot. This explains Berkoff physical style as Shakespeare language benefits physical movement as it provides image to work from.

According to Berkoff, to him
'The only purpose for a script is to help  minimalise and physicalise the story'