From Wagatha Christie to Donald Trump: can rapid-fire real-life drama upstage the news?
Arifa Akbar
Dramatising the latest watercooler story doesn’t guarantee you box-office success. The stiffest competition may come from reality’s own high drama
April 2022
‘Still a work in progress’: what has #MeToo done for women in theatre?
The Harvey Weinstein scandal was supposed to usher in a reckoning for the industry. But while some headway has been made, meaningful change has proved elusive
July 2021
Ian McKellen’s Hamlet loses two actors amid claims of bitter disagreement
Steven Berkoff and Emmanuella Cole will not be part of production when it opens on Monday
May 2021
Brighton review – Steven Berkoff’s dated seaside satire is a washout
Two middle-aged couples take a profanity-laden daytrip to the city where they met – but who exactly is this film for?
Steven Berkoff, Hamlet and that death threat
Letters: Nicholas de Jongh sets the record straight
Guardian 200
The rudest things they ever said about the Guardian
This newspaper has upset public figures from Blair to Trump. Here we look at some of the resultant indignation
March 2021
Ian McKellen's long-awaited return as Hamlet set for June
Shakespeare tragedy will be followed by The Cherry Orchard with a cast including Steven Berkoff and Jenny Seagrove
November 2020
Teenage kicks
Steven Berkoff’s teenage obsessions: ‘I became very adept at jive'
The actor and playwright on the magic of Italian, French and American cinema, dressing up to go dancing and falling in love with mime
June 2020
Lockdown culture
Nixon in Agony review – Berkoff gets inside disgraced president's head
Richard Nixon’s downfall may be resonant with our age, but in Adam Donen’s experimental sound dramatisation the psychological noise drowns out the story
Steven Berkoff's Tell Tale Heart review – voraciously hammy gothic
There are fine grisly moments and a creepy score, but Berkoff’s lurid performance stymies the horror of Poe’s murder tale
Hiddleston! McKellen! Olivier! Shakespeare's mighty Coriolanus – in pictures
The Donmar Warehouse’s production of Coriolanus, starring Tom Hiddleston, is being streamed for National Theatre at Home. Here are some of the other stagings of the bold and bloody tragedy
August 2019
Theatre and #MeToo: 'There's a new anger in women's stories'
The Weinstein scandal has inspired several new plays ranging from sharp satire to crass comedy. As the mogul heads to trial, we gauge theatre’s response
February 2019
Harvey review – Steven Berkoff explores Weinstein's psyche
This attempt to delve into the disgraced movie mogul’s mind finds rage, denial and hate
The star of Antonioni’s The Passenger talks about working with Jack Nicholson, Derek Jarman and John Cassavetes, and the cautionary tale of her friend, Last Tango actor Maria Schneider
November 2018
Steven Berkoff: who will dare to stage my one-man Harvey Weinstein play?
Chahine Yavroyan obituary
January 2018
Steven Berkoff's elegy for the East End returns to London pub that launched it
East, the audacious play by the British dramatist turned Hollywood villain, was labelled ‘filthy’ in 1975 and remains a set text. It’s now back in London, followed by a 21st-century homage, Flesh and Bone
October 2016
Theatre in the Roundhouse: Berkoff, Warhol and an age of experimentation – in pictures
London’s Roundhouse is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Revisit some of the theatre that was staged in its first wave of activity, from the late 1960s to the early 80s
May 2016
Manhattan Night review – hard-boiled, but half-baked neo-noir
Adrien Brody plays a crime columnist mixed up with a femme fatale in a steamy drama that manages to entertain despite its adherence to genre conventions
December 2015
Rise of the Footsoldier Part II review – cockney yob slog
Entirely unnecessary sequel on the further fortunes of a football hooligan turned gangland bruiser trying to rise in a grotty underworld of thugs’n’drugs
