Wednesday 26 August 2009

An Afternoon Without Ken Campbell

I'm pleased to finally announce a personal project that's been bubbling along for a little while.
On Saturday, October the 10th we'll be mounting an event celebrating the actor, writer and director Ken Campbell at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield.

Ken who died suddenly in 2008 was one of the most inspiring, hilarious and mind-expanding figures in British theatre and his work from the 1970s on has influenced a whole generation of performers and creators.
We'll look back over his incredible career with our guests, the theatre critic Michael Coveney and the film-maker Sheridan Thayer and over three hours of film, much of it unseen in public for over 25 years.

The screenings will include-

'Firework Man', the 1977 feature on Ken for the ITV arts programme 'Aquarius',
'No Problem- The Theatre of Ken Campbell', a 1981 documentary going behind the scenes of Ken's famous theatre productions of 'The Warp' and 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' with input from the writers of both, Neil Oram and Douglas Adams,
and
'Antic Visionary'- The World of Ken Campbell', Sheridan Thayer's amazing 2003 feature length profile of Ken, featuring interviews with many of his friends, colleagues and fans. Sir Peter Hall, Robert McKee, Brian Aldiss, Sylvester McCoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Drummond, Bill Nighy and Nina Conti to name just a few all contribute to this superb portrait of the man and his work.

Come and be entertained, challenged and, hopefully, inspired by a legend!

Tickets are £10 (£6.50 concessions).

Two further tributes to Ken follow later in the month, an evening celebrating his work at the National Theatre on the 12th of October: 'Beyond Our Ken - The Multiverse of Ken Campbell'
and an hour long 'Archive on 4' feature for Radio 4 presented by poet Ian McMillan on the 31st of October.

5 comments:

Stuart Douglas said...

What's the specific times on Saturday this is on, Ian? I may be in Yorkshire that day you see...

David Baillie said...

Sounds great, Ian - I really wish I could make it!

Anonymous said...

If Ms Thayer releases Antic Visionary on DVD, is there a chance of these other programmes being extras? Can you get the rights?

IZP said...

I doubt it, Greatbeast. For the cinema showings we can get hold of things via the BFI but for commercial release getting and clearing archive stuff start getting dear.

Mike Kazybrid and Andrew Wooding said...

I went and it was brilliant. Thanks, Ian!