Theatre
Ken Campbell
Ken Campbell’s School Of Night
At the 2006 Edinburgh Festival, Ken turned his attention to Shakespeare’s lost masterpiece Cardenio. Over ten nights, inspired by audience suggestions, Ken’s team improvised their way through the many possibilities thrown up by this missing classic.
‘We took the scenic route’ admitted Campbell, who explored Elizabethan humours by performing them in modern musical styles, and examined great acting with masterclasses on gastromancy. Audience members had impromptu sonnets created for them and were taught the ‘secrets of crowd scenes’.
But for Ken, the most intriguing question was ‘Who wrote Shakespeare?’ High up on the list of conspiracy theories is Walter Raleigh’s School Of Night, a clandestine and arcane underground sect of artists, thinkers, writers, scientists and spies.
Ken’s team of bardic improvisers remain as one of his many legacies - a School of Night for the 21st century, improvising plays, poems and musicals in various genres, inspired by audience suggestions and always in pursuit of secret commissions!
Ken Campbell’s School Of Night is an adaptable show, ideal for late-night theatrical entertainment. It could run within a one-hour slot or play as a full two-act evening. It has minimal technical requirements and can play on any existing theatre set. The action is improvised and based on audience suggestions. In Edinburgh audiences came back two or three times to see how the piece had developed and what the team would undertake next.
The school consists of highly skilled performers capable of playing in any theatrical style and keen to rise to any challenge.
Members have included John Sessions, Keddy Sutton, Josh Darcy, Adam Meggido, Sean McCann, Mike Mears, Dylan Emery, Pippa Evans, Oliver Senton, Seamus Allen and Lucy Trodd.