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Cargando... Ken Campbell: The Great Caperpor Michael Coveney
Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.  Petra.Xs | Apr 2, 2013 |  sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
The first, authorised biography of the anarchic comic genius, much cherished for his performances on stage and screen. Ken Campbell (1941-2008) was a one-man whirlwind who tore through the British theatre establishment using well-rehearsed anarchy and a genius for surreal comedy. Starting out in rep at Stoke-on-Trent, he founded the Ken Campbell Road Show, whose members included the then-unknown Bob Hoskins and Sylvester McCoy, and which toured pubs and clubs with dramatised urban myths and shaggy-dog stories. His later shows included Illuminatus! - the first show at the National Theatre's studio - and the 22-hour The Warp, the longest play in the world. On television he played corrupt lawyer Alex Gladwell in the 1970s series Law and Order, and was Alf Garnett's neighbour Fred Johnson in the sitcom In Sickness and in Health. He later found a devoted audience with his mesmerising one-man shows, which he toured worldwide. Ken Campbell 'became a grand old man of the fringe, though without ever discarding his inner enfant terrible' Independent Theatre critic Michael Coveney was given unrestricted access to Campbell's letters, notebooks and original scripts. From these and from interviews with Campbell's many devoted/bemused collaborators, he has chronicled the life of the anarchic and uncompromising genius that was Ken Campbell. Alternately inspiring and jaw-dropping, The Great Caper is the story of a unique and inimitable talent in British theatre. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)792.7028092The arts Recreational and performing arts Stage presentations, Theatre Variety shows and theatrical dancing Techniques, procedures, apparatus, materialsClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (4.5)
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Its best to start with his funeral,
'His great friend Warren Mitchell, 82 and in a wheelchair, told a Jewish joke, another actor read from Macbeth in pidgin English, a distraught colleague tore off the lid of the coffin, to discover Ken wrapped in dog blankets, his daughter Daisy recalled how he made her learn poetry whenever she wanted a new pair of shoes, and….
Michael Coveney recounts the bizarre scene in the heart of Epping Forest two years ago in his beautifully poignant and brilliantly hilarious biography of a maverick outsider for whom laughter was king.
For it was at that very graveside, as Campbell’s coffin was hauled on a sled pulled by his own three black mongrel dogs, that he was asked to write the story of a man he accepts was a remarkable comic genius. More than that, he had grown up in the same Ilford neighbourhood as Campbell before seeing his antics on stage as a noted critic.'
Gerald Isaaman, http://www.islingtontribune.com/reviews/books/2011/apr/books-review-ken-campbell...
His comedy was anarchic, existentialist and driven. It might have looked off-the-cuff, but mostly, everything was rehearsed and planned unless it was off-the-cuff in which case an actor was not allowed to repeat anything he'd done the night before on pain of losing his wages. (A moot point perhaps, since making money was not a reason an actor worked for Ken, often it was just pass-a-hat-round and divvy up the takings).
He is most famous with the general public in the UK for a couple of characters he played in some mad comedy soap operas. For the theatre-loving crowd, his fame rests a great deal on the play cycles Warp! and Illuminatus, one lasting 9 hours, the other 22.
The book is very gentle and comedic and obviously written by someone who loved Ken. At no other time in history could a man who thought so differently as Ken could have made a living from his art and inveigled others into his mad enthusiasms too. Sad the day he passed on, but, as Isaaman said, 'funeral is an anagram for real fun'. Ken knew that. (