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 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 Pidgin 14 Oct 1998, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Charles Spencer was less sure about it:
Spencer 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 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 Tour 19 Nov 1998, Thu The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
I wish I could write stuff like that.
