Ken Campbell (Estate)

Born on 10th December 1941, Ken Campbell was a writer, actor, director and comedian best known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been described as a "one-man dynamo of British theatre". He tore through the British theatre establishment using well-rehearsed anarchy and a genius for surreal comedy.

He achieved notoriety in the 70s for his nine-hour adaptation of the science-fiction trilogy ILLUMINATUS and his 22-hour staging of Neil Oram's play cycle THE WARP. The Guinness Book of Records listed the latter as the longest play in the world.  

The Independent said "In the 1990s. through a series of sprawling monologues packed with arcane informatioj and freakish speculations on the nature of reality, he became something approaching a grand old man of the fringe, though without ever discarding his innner enfant terrible". 

The Times labelled him a one-man whirlwind of comic and surreal performances.

Ken passed away in August 2008. In a posthumous tribute, The Guardian judged him to be "one of the most original and unclassified talents in the British theatre of the past half-century". 

Selected credits are shown below.

Photo credit - Richard Adams