Recently, Actor/Author/Director Steven Berkoff was interviewed by Vulpes Libres here and had this to say about current stage actors:
excerpt:
VL: You’ve been known to be a bit scathing about today’s generation of actors; are there any you feel have – in your own words – ‘that glint of the possessed’?
SB: There are many actors that have, over the years, developed immense power and technique . Perhaps not as much as there were in my younger days, but I have seen Antony Sher be brilliant in Death of a Salesman, in a performance that can only be developed by an actor who has spent decades on stage.
Also, Mark Strong was excellent recently in A View from the Bridge.
Richard Armitage was also quite spellbinding in The Crucible.
We notice that all these performances were in Arthur Miller plays, which suggests to me that great actors are only made from great dramas. Since there are so few great modern dramas, it’s not attracting or developing great modern actors.
While I vaguely recognize his countenance, I can’t say I knew the name Steven Berkoff before this article. There are at least two books mentioned, and one play, that I’d like to read.
The article was picked up originally from a tweet by Guillermina Rivas on Twitter.
Armitage Agonistes 