Tag: Ken Campbell

Gresham Society Visit To The Royal College Of Music, Followed By A Tribute To Ken Campbell At The Royal Court Theatre, Followed By Dinner At The Henry Root With Charlie & Chris, 8 April 2011

Photo by Richard Adams, Wingspeed at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Gresham Society Visit To The Royal College Of Music

Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0

This visit to the Royal College of Music (RCM) was my first proper excursion visit with The Gresham Society, following my initial singalong taster session at Wilton’s Music Hall a few weeks earlier.

For me, it was especially fascinating to see the fine collection of musical instruments, some very early, not least because Janie and I listen to a lot of early music. Subsequently I have become a (very amateur) practitioner of early music myself, although only with my voice and my mock Tudor instrument.

My mock Tudor baroquelele – strangely not in the RCM collection

I think the Gresham Society crowd went on to enjoy libations somewhere near the RCM, whereas I had other fish to fry that evening.

A Tribute To Ken Campbell

I was a long-time fan of Ken Campbell and his superb comedy work. Janie less so.

This early evening round table discussion at The Royal Court worked out very well for me, as I was able to fit it in between the Gresham Society Visit To The Royal College Of Music and our dinner engagement with Charlie & Chris.

Chris had said that he would be unable to get to The Henry Root in South Kensington for dinner until about 7:30. Janie was keen to have a drink and a chat with Charlie “before the boys get here”, so the plans were well set.

For those who wish they had been there to hear Daisy Campbell, Nina Conti, Jim Broadbent, John Sessions, Richard Eyre and Michael Coveney pay tribute to the great man – fear not. The event was recorded and has been placed in the public domain here…

Or, if that link ever fails, here is an upload of the download, as it were:

ROYAL COURT ROUNDTABLE TRIBUTE TO KEN CAMPBELL

Dinner With Janie, Charlie & Chris At the Henry Root

Unfortunately there was no recording, upload or download of the sparkling conversation in The Henry Root when Janie, Charlie, Chris and I gathered there later that evening.

The Henry Root, which was a rather jolly bistro restaurant named after William Donaldson’s wonderful letter-writing character, is now long gone. It was Ok; Janie and I dined there more than once in those heady days of the early teenies.

That particular evening with Charlie and Chris was an especially good one, as I remember it.

“Here’s a pound”

Pidgin MacBeth by Ken Campbell, Cottesloe Theatre, 1 August 1998

This was a preview of a show Ken Campbell put on at The Piccadilly Thetre later that year.

I loved Ken Campbell’s work and I seem to recall a very funny monologue in one of his earlier one-man shows when he talked about his fascination with the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and vaguely posited the idea of performing MacBeth in pidgin.

In this piece, Campbell goes into far more detail about the language and his desire to establish pidgin as a world language, or Wol Wontok, which he believed could be achieved in just a few days as the language is so easy.

Here is Ken Campbell’s Guardian piece shown on the back of the programme note above, in proper clipping/readable form:

Guardian Wol NambawanGuardian Wol Nambawan 22 Jul 1998, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

The first part of the prodcution was fascinating and funny, but, in truth, Janie and I found the delivery of MacBeth in pidgin less funny than the idea of it being done.

Never mind. An evening in the hands of Ken Campbell is never dull and I remember this evening more fondly than my log note suggests I would:

Not as much fun as we thought it might be – the idea is funnier than the delivery

Somewhat strangely, through work, soon after seeing this play, I met Patrick Ellum, who was a former Attorney General of Vanuatu. Through Patrick, I met one of that nation’s visiting Prime Ministers and his entourage. No, I didn’t try out my pidgin on them, although I did ask them about the deification of Prince Philip in Tanna. Hopefully I’ll Ogblog that event in the fullness of time.

But I digress.

“Prince Philip” in pidgin was, “nambawan bigfella emi blong Misis Kwin“, by the way.

I digress again, but no more.

Lyn Gardner in the Guardian gave Pidgin Macbeth a guarded thumps up, while signally failing to translate The Bard’s name into pidgin properly – it’s “Macbed Blong Wilum Sekspia“, dear, not Sekstia – typical Grauniad:

Gardner Guardian PidginGardner Guardian Pidgin 14 Oct 1998, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Charles Spencer was less sure about it:

Spencer Telegraph PidginSpencer Telegraph Pidgin 13 Oct 1998, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Nick Curtis in The Standard was far more forgiving :

Curtis Standard PidginCurtis Standard Pidgin 12 Oct 1998, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

This post production article by Dan Glaister in The Guardian describes Ken Campbell’s campaign taking this play to Papua New Guinea. Cool.

Glaister Guardian Pidgin TourGlaister Guardian Pidgin Tour 19 Nov 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I wish I could write stuff like that.

Mebi Wilum Sekspia, No Mebi Wilum Sekspia

Theatre Stories by Ken Campbell, Cottesloe Theatre, Followed By Dinner At Vong, 18 October 1997

I have long been partial to a bit of Ken Campbell. This one man show comprised “more than a bit” of him, I suppose.

Superb fun.

…was my verdict. I think I got more out of it than Daisy did, but she still liked it a lot.

Patrick Marmion liked it in the Standard.

Theatre Stories Marmion StandardTheatre Stories Marmion Standard 20 Oct 1997, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Paul Taylor in the Independent was very taken with it.

Campbell Taylor IndyCampbell Taylor Indy 20 Oct 1997, Mon The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Dinner At Vong

Janie’s thing at that time was for us to go to a posh place for after theatre dinner. This time, we went to Vong at The Berkeley Hotel.

Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote up the place for the Telegraph a few month’s earlier:

Vong Lloyd Weber TelegraphVong Lloyd Weber Telegraph 28 Jun 1997, Sat The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Matthew Fort in The Guardian described the place as too chic and achingly glossy in 1996 when it first opened.

Vong Fort GuardianVong Fort Guardian 24 Feb 1996, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I remember finding the food very interesting and the price less scary than Nobu.

Violin Time by Ken Campbell, Cottesloe Theatre, 16 January 1996

This evening – a rare visit to The Cottesloe on a Tuesday evening – was the first time I saw Ken Campbell perform.

I was really smitten with this piece – I found it very funny. I think I got more out of it than Janie did, but she was fascinated enough to want to see more of his work after that.

One of the things that attracted us to the piece, apart from the weirdness of the blurb, which promised us – I paraphrase from various book blurbs available:

“Cathar heretics, a mysterious female French book thief and a Vietnamese violinist who does pig impressions”.

It would be difficult to say no to that, especially as we had booked to go to Vietnam a couple of months later.

Janie and I saw an early preview of the show; it didn’t get reviewed until October but we saw a preview in January.

There is a somewhat tepid Independent review of the piece by Robert Hanks available on-line – here.

Michael Coveney in the Observer liked it, perhaps because he got a name drop:

Coveney on Violin TimeCoveney on Violin Time Sun, Oct 6, 1996 – 76 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Unusually, it doesn’t look as though The Guardian reviewed it.