Powerful creative forces come together this April as Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company and East Productions present the first British staging of ON THE WATERFRONT. The celebrated drama of mob violence and racketeering amongst the quaysides of New York – an eightfold Oscar-winning film – has been adapted for the stage by its original screenwriter Budd Schulberg, working with Stan Silverman. This, the first production to be authorised in the UK, will be directed by the equally legendary figure of Steven Berkoff and features sets conceived by acclaimed contemporary artist Patrick Hughes. Sponsored by southreef, ON THE WATERFRONT premieres at Nottingham Playhouse from Friday 18 April to Saturday 3 May (Box Office: 0115 941 9419 or www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk).
ON THE WATERFRONT evokes a lawless world, just a few blocks from the bright lights of Manhattan. Budd Schulberg’s stage version reflects the brutal realities of waterfront life with even greater honesty than his celebrated screenplay. The play is a natural fit for Steven Berkoff, himself raised a stone’s throw from London’s docklands, who directs a twelve-strong ensemble cast in his savagely physical style. The participation of Patrick Hughes lends the production an extra dimension: a maverick of the art world, Hughes is world-famous for his dazzling explorations of perspective and perception.
Boxer Terry Malloy "coulda been a contender", but his Mob protectors forced him to throw his biggest match; now they throw him the easy shifts on the dock. By contrast, Father Pete Barry is a man of high ideals, but the gangsters’ stranglehold on his waterfront parish drives him only to impotent fury. The two have one thing in common: Edie Doyle, the sister of a quayside activist whom Terry unwittingly lured to his death. Pricking their consciences, Edie goads both men into taking a stand against the corrupt union overlords. Yet, should the priest and the prizefighter finally shatter the waterfront’s rigid code of silence, a price will be paid in blood.
The origins of ON THE WATERFRONT lie in the Pulitzer prize-winning exposé Crime on the Waterfront by journalist Malcolm Johnson. Realising the material’s dramatic potential, writer Budd Schulberg and director Elia Kazan developed the film in close collaboration. Spending months embedded in New York’s waterfront community, Schulberg observed the gangsters’ extortion and intimidation at first hand; the character of Father Barry is a direct tribute to the courageous "waterfront priest" Father John Corridan. On another level, the film also provided an allegory of the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, in which both Schulberg and Kazan had become embroiled. Released in 1954, On the Waterfront scooped eight Academy Awards including Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actor for Marlon Brando, although the entire movie was cast straight out of the celebrated Actors’ Studio, with Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger co-starring.
Published in 2001, the stage adaptation by Schulberg and his lifelong friend and collaborator Stan Silverman preserves the streetwise dialogue and vivid sense of authenticity which proved so successful on screen. However, it gives Schulberg a welcome opportunity to explore in greater depth the daring of Father Barry, alongside the redemption of Terry Malloy. The play also, in Schulberg’s words, "cuts a lot closer to the bone" – reworking the film’s triumphal ending to reflect the fact that over fifty years later, the Port of New York is "still held hostage by the mob".
A child of Hollywood, where his father was head of Paramount Pictures, Budd Schulberg first made his own name with the novels What Makes Sammy Run?, The Harder They Fall and The Disenchanted. It was Kazan who persuaded him to return to film with On the Waterfront, which was to net him an Academy Award, and he later wrote the film A Face in the Crowd. Active as a writer, liberal activist and promoter of young writing talent throughout his life, Schulberg has a particularly enduring passion for boxing: producing a biography of Muhammad Ali and decades of fight reportage. His new book Ringside is published in the UK by Mainstream this May.
A tough tale of tough men, ON THE WATERFRONT could have no more appropriate director than Steven Berkoff, who at 70 remains one of the most vital forces in British theatre. Berkoff enjoys a fearsome reputation as a screen villain, in such films as Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo and Octopussy as well as Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. This, however, is no reflection of his range as actor, director and writer, always marked by his vigorous, muscular style. Berkoff recently published his latest memoir A Life in Food, while his original plays include East, West, Decadence and Messiah: Scenes from a Crucifixion. Nottingham Playhouse staged his history play Ritual in Blood in 2001, and is also one of many venues around the world to have hosted his trilogy of solo shows One Man, Shakespeare’s Villains and Requiem for Ground Zero. ON THE WATERFRONT is his first directing credit for Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company.
A leading exponent of "total theatre", Berkoff has followed Kazan in assembling a powerful ensemble cast for ON THE WATERFRONT. Playing Terry Malloy is Simon Merrells. Familiar from TV’s Family Affairs and Merseybeat, Simon has previously appeared at Nottingham Playhouse in Berkoff’s Ritual in Blood and at Lakeside Arts Centre in The Retirement of Tom Stevens. He recently toured the UK in Nancy Meckler’s RSC production of The Comedy of Errors, opposite his own brother Jason as his twin. Playing Father Barry, Vincenzo Nicoli is equally familiar with The Comedy of Errors, having played both twins at Shakespeare’s Globe; his film credits include In Love and War and Alien3. Coral Beed, who plays Edie, has had screen roles in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and the major Bollywood film The Rising among others. Sam Douglas is union racketeer Johnny Friendly, Robin Kingsland is Terry’s brother Charlie, and the remainder of the cast comprises Sean Buckley, Ian Drysdale, Alex Giannini, Ian Gofton, Dominic Grant, Alex McSweeney and Alexander Thomas.Patrick Hughes turns his had to set design after decades of teasing the eye on canvases flat and otherwise. First achieving fame for his playful sequence of rainbow paintings in the 1970s and 80s, the Birmingham-born surrealist has since experienced global success with his series of "reverspectives". In these ingenious landscapes, the most distant parts of the scene are in fact physically closer to the viewer, to whom the image appears to move and change. Costume and Associate Set Designer Helen Fownes-Davies assists Hughes in his transition from optical to theatrical illusion. Matthew Cullum is Assistant Director and Lighting Design is by Mike Robertson.
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Press Night: Nottingham Playhouse, Tuesday 22 April at 7.45pm
