KEY POINTS:
With an Australasian tour that takes in more than a dozen venues, Steven Berkoff is doing what he does best - delivering his own brand of "in yer face" theatre, honing his formidable skills and hopefully finding sustenance in the sparks that flow between a performer and a live audience.
Still on the road at the age of 71, he may be starting to feel like the Ancient Mariner who was compelled to wander the Earth and tell his story. But like the wedding guest who listened to the mariner's tale, those who were lucky enough to catch Berkoff's two-night season will have come away enriched by the experience.
The Aotea Centre was hardly the ideal venue for a one-man show but Berkoff brought enough attitude to fill a stadium and he effortlessly established a link with the audience that made the cavernous auditorium feel like a living room.
The show consisted of two short pieces that were very different but both provided a compelling demonstration of Berkoff's belief that the naturalistic emphasis of contemporary theatre has produced an impoverished performance style that neglects the expressive potential of movement.
The first work was an elegant presentation of an Edgar Allen Poe story that clinically dissected the psychology of paranoia. The story opened with stilted movement and metronomic vocal rhythms but built to an explosion of blood-curdling mayhem and hysteria.
Along the way we were treated to sardonic humour and moments of sheer brilliance, like the protagonist opening his own head to extract a word that hovers just beyond the reach of his memory.
After interval, Berkoff bounced on stage to the power chords of Anarchy in the UK and if the pot belly seemed slightly incongruous, the actor managed to summon up the energy of an amphetamine-fuelled teenager.
Dog was a hilarious exploration of the relationship between a pit bull and his owner - a football hooligan who showed tenderness by allowing the dog to hoover up the Chinese takeaways he vomited on to the pavement after ingesting a few too many lagers.
The show pointed to an equivalence between dog and owner, though the pit bull emerged as more sympathetic, more articulate and ultimately more human. Without seeming to deliver any kind of message, Berkoff revealed the pathos of a life reduced to animalistic barbarism.
