TO A professor at Lamta had suggested early on that I might fit well into Ken Campbell's way of working. I don't have the guts to do anything about it. Finally I called him and he said, “Oh, it's significant because I'm going to do the most significant work ever done on Planet World! Come and chat after reading these books. So I did it.
Illuminate! Trilogy [by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson] It is a kind of science fiction that brings together conspiracy theories current at that time. It's a great thing that encompasses a variety of stories and characters.
It was the hot summer of '76 and the drama was about to begin in Liverpool. There was a character in the Illuminatius books! called fission chips. I think it's based on James Bond, so I quoted the book in my Sean Connery accent.
If you want to be in this, you can be. I mean, I don't think it distracted anyone. An Extraordinarily Select Group of People [who included Bill Nighy, Bill Drummond, Chris Fairbank and David Rappaport] They insisted, from all over the world, on being part of this extraordinary event for Liverpool science fiction theatre. I don't think I've ever auditioned like that. I wanted to know what you could do.
So every morning we would go to the Matthew Street rehearsal room in Liverpool and the day's pages would be there. I made sure I was there before everyone else, so I picked the good parts. I think I ended up doing about 12 of the five works.
Ken was in genius form. Very exciting and fun; And it introduced me to a whole new theatrical world and showed me how to capture an audience's attention. It was a great education and it was a lot of fun. He is very intelligent and confident. And because I did really hard reps, it was totally liberating.
He never liked to underestimate actors. (Until he says, “I want you to tone it down even more. Even smaller than that!“) No. I wanted you to make sure he was attractive. At one point I said to him, Ken, I'm a little worried because I'm elevating the actor whose scene this is. “Don't worry about it. If you're more interested than him, that It's your problem.
Ken promoted it without hesitation and told everyone that it was the most remarkable work ever done. And he asked all of England's leading theater directors to attend. In short, one or two did. When we were in Liverpool, we were certainly the first play at the Cottesloe Theater in London.
From the beginning at Liverpool I got on well with Chris Fairbank; We'll make sure we both get to work early. I remember telling him in the first week: “From now on, our lives will be before and after the Illuminati!” And it was clear that something very exciting was happening. We went to Amsterdam and then to the National Theatre. Everyone wanted to see it.
Olivier opened with Albert Finney a huge and problematic production of Tamerlane the Great. There was a lot of controversy about it and how difficult it was. When Chris and Ken went to meet Peter Hall, Hall said, “What's it like directing a five-hour play then? How do you do that, Ken? Ken said, “Well, it's like playing a tambourine, but as do.”
