East was the first Berkoff play to take the country by storm, but is the writer still sending torpedoes into the bourgeois, asks TOM KING...

An interview with actor/playwright Steven Berkoff is a rare event these days. And from the thin ranks of those who do get to talk to the great man, not every journalist survives intact.

So, along with the usual pre-interview checklist, there was the little matter of shin-pads, gumshield, white flag, and a quick check on the location of the nearest exit.

Mr Berkoff is possibly the most terrifying man in show business. He makes no secret of the fact that he is full of rage and fury. He has the physique of a night club bouncer and the lowering visage of a James Bond villain - a role which he indeed played, in Octopussy.

Yet there are also things that Steven Berkoff loves, and one of them is his own first play as a writer, East.

The revival of East, written in 1975, is currently running at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff.

The chance to talk about his 25-year-old baby - which includes a scene set in Southend - was enough to lure even Steven Berkoff from the wings to talk about it, even if for only 10 minutes.

Berkoff's depiction of the East End in the raw, dressed in semi-poetic language, made a fierce impact when it opened. East shocked and excited in equal measures, which is exactly what Berkoff meant it to do.

"East was written in a mood of exultation and frivolity," remembers Berkoff. "It was an experiment in playwriting and an attempt to be bold, to free oneself of insufferable and repressive aspects that seemed to belong to the British theatre of angst, moan and shout."

That was the agenda, and Steven Berkoff set about his project with exhilaration. "I recall how easily it seemed to flow once I had found what I believed was the form, the art."

East, 25 years later, is no longer either young and fresh or especially revolutionary. Now the word "classic" is being bandied about, and East is being used as a set text in schools.

Does the prospect of becoming part of the established repertoire please or appall Berkoff, I wondered?

"Oh, it definitely pleases me," he says, with a delight he doesn't even attempt to conceal with an add-on snarl. "It has to be very, very pleasing for a writer to be accepted into the canon.

"Young people around the world, not just in England, have claimed it as their own."

At this stage, Steven Berkoff was coming across as positively amiable. And why shouldn't he? After all, plenty of circumstances have conspired to mellow him.

The tough Stepney childhood is long behind him. The series of plays that followed East, full of the same passionate language and with the same sharp eye and ear for street life, have made him one of Britain's most acclaimed stage writers.

Alongside this, he has developed an enviable career as a character actor, specialising, of course, in the sort of heavy with brains as well as brawn who makes other heavies quake.

He took on Sylvester Stallone in Rambo II, Sean Connery in Outland, Patrick Stewart in Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop.

There was also, of course, an understandably terrified-looking Roger Moore in Octopussy.

On stage Berkoff has polished and worked up his evil reputation in the one man show Shakespeare's Villains.

All this villainous activity, however, seems to have squeezed out the play-writing.

"I've been mostly acting recently," Berkoff admits. "I don't, can't, just sit down and decide I've got to write something. I've got to wait to be impacted by an idea. It's got to come up from inside, from the life.

"I've also discovered this new talent I have for stand-up comedy. It makes no difference to me whether I'm in the theatre as an actor or writer, providing I'm there."

Comedian, eh? Nothing dangerous here, then. I began to unstrap my safety helmet. But this was premature. The fact is, for all his success, Berkoff is one very cross man.

Having returned to the theatre, he doesn't like what he sees. As far as he is concerned, the changes which he helped to bring about with East have all been forgotten or ignored.

Worse still, the bourgeois (a Marxist word I hadn't heard used since the agitprop '70s) are back.

"An East End person like me sends out a torpedo into the bourgeois," says Berkoff. "The waters part and you think the torpedo has done some good. But then the waves just roll back again.

"Look at the West End today," he continues, warming to the point of incandescence to his theme. "Look at what's on now. It's pathetic, decadent.

"What are the bourgeois audiences all going to see in the theatre? An Alan Bennett play about an old lady! Pah! Do you know what followed my play in the theatre? The Chiltern Hundreds. The Chiltern Hundreds!!!! A '50s drawing room comedy.

"Yes, I do still find plenty to be angry about. Yes, there is still room for hate."

Horray, the sparks were flying and the great Berkoff was truly living up to his reputation.

Then, alas, the radical playwright recalled that utterly bourgeois consideration, the time on the clock.

The last question I wanted to ask Berkoff was simple. He is, after all, an actor.

Was there, possibly, just a measure of role-acting in his perceived persona as the real-life heavy of British showbiz? Is there, in fact, an affable bloke with a strong sense of fun lurking beneath?

Alas, there was no time to even enquire, let alone duck.

"Sorry, time's up and I've got to go to work," he said, and departed, leaving a decided whiff of sulphur behind him.

Still, in these bland days, it is faintly reassuring to know that Seven Berkoff is still raging - and still, no doubt, frightening the wits out of everybody who crosses his path.

East is at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff until Saturday

Dark, villainous and angry - playwright, actor and director Steven Berkoff plays villains on screen and has written stark plays, but has time mellowed him?

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.