Romeo and Juliet bored him, but Steven Berkoff’s play Greek changed Sean Curran’s life
- When Sean Curran saw Romeo and Juliet, he was bored. When he watched Steven Berkoff’s Greek, it set him on a path to drama, and to Hong Kong
![Sean Curran, co-founder and co-artistic director of Hong Kong theatre company Theatre du Pif. He reveals how Steven Berkoff’s play Greek changed his life. Photo: Theatre du Pif](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/02/74e89324-8c8f-401f-98a3-7ead1d88f44a_384189b8.jpg?itok=HXtrxTls&v=1719888144)
Steven Berkoff’s 1988 revival at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre of his own play Greek (1980), a reworking of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex updated to contemporary London, presented a confrontational, stylised, deconstructivist theatrical spectacle typical of the playwright, director and actor’s work.
Sean Curran, co-founder and co-artistic director of innovative Hong Kong theatre company Theatre du Pif, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
I was 23 and I’d been taking drama classes in Edinburgh, Scotland. My friend had been taking them and he said, “You should come along – it’s a good laugh.”
I’d never done any drama before. I was at college, studying to become a physical education teacher, after previously hoping to become a football player.
![A poster for Steven Berkoff’s play Greek at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre. A poster for Steven Berkoff’s play Greek at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.](https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/02/bc0c05cc-9bc1-4474-b2e0-b33f9aae5ec7_4e98cba9.jpg)
The woman who ran the drama course had studied with Berkoff in mime school in the 1960s. She knew I was going down to visit friends in London in the summer, and she said, “You should go and see one of Steven’s productions.”
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