Berkoff - Greek Introduction

Over the next few weeks, we will be performing a ten-minute extract from a Berkoff play in his style. The group that I have been assigned consists of myself, Izzy, Kathryn, Marlon, and Maya. We will be performing the play Greek which is a modern interpretation of the Oedipus myth written by Sophocles where amongst other things, Oedipus marries his mother, kills his father, and defeats the Sphinx.

Video Explaining the Oedipus myth: 

This video has made the myth much more accessible and now I understand the basics of the myth - Oedipus' real father went to an oracle who told him he would be murdered by his son. When Oedipus' mother becomes has a son, Oedipus is sent away from Thebes and grows up as the son of the royal family of Corinth. When he grows up, he hears rumours that those in Corinth aren't his real parents so decides to go to an oracle about this - the oracle instead tells him that he will kill his father and marry his mother, so therefore he decides to travel to Thebes to stop this fate from happening. On the way to Thebes, Oedipus kills his real father (the king of Thebes) and defeats the Sphinx at the city wall. Creon (Oedipus' uncle) is now king of Thebes and says that anyone who defeats the Sphinx can marry Jocasta (Oedipus' mother) whom Oedipus goes on to marry and have four children with. Thebes begins to grow desolate and the only way to stop this is to rid a plague from the city unknowingly caused by Oedipus due to marrying his mother. Eventually, the truth comes out so Jocasta kills herself and Oedipus pulls out his own eyes, banishing himself from Thebes.

Certainly, the myth is brutal and I can see where Berkoff has drawn his influences - the brutality especially would allow for Berkoff to use impressive language which was present in East to describe the plague and various other parts of the myth. The impressive language, although filled with various cockney colloquialisms and doesn't make that much sense to me, is easily understandable to those who recognise the colloquialisms. Berkoff has made the myth more accessible to those who stereotypically wouldn't read Sophocles' plays by putting it into a modern interpretation.

Berkoff speaking about Greek: https://vimeo.com/17232111

Below is the analysis of the script that we've been given. (Please excuse the poor camera work).