Asia Times: THEATER: Macbeth in pidgin



	February 02, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

THEATER: Macbeth in pidgin
By Nick Smurthwaite

LONDON - In the past he's been branded a lunatic anda genius but it's doubtful whether actor, philosopher and soloperformer Ken Campbell has ever been called a pioneer - until now.

Campbell, who enjoys a dedicated cult following in Britain, isseeking a wider audience for his latest show and worldwiderecognition for Wol Wantok - a language he claims anyone canlearn in an afternoon.

Wol Wantok means 'world one talk' in pidgin - the languagespoken by large numbers of the inhabitants of the South Pacificislands. The language originated in the sugar plantations of NorthQueensland in Australia the mid-18th century.

Ken Campbell explains: ''The English bosses used to import slavesfrom different Pacific islands so they couldn't talk to eachother. They all spoke different dialects. Obviously they needed tohave an easy, common language in order to communicate, so theyadopted the language of the plantation guards who were mostlyIrish."

Campbell reckons that adapted pidgin would be the perfect globallanguage of communication, far better than, say, Esperanto, theartificial world language devised in 1887 by Ludwig Zamenhof.

''It's got no grammar, which makes it easier to learn than mostother languages. It took me about an afternoon to get the hang ofit, ''Campbell says. ''My idea is for it to be adopted as aninternational lingua franca. Its bloody daft the world doesn'thave a common language. Esperanto is much too difficult."

The connection between Wol Wantok and Campbell's latest show isthat he has translated Shakespeare's Macbeth into pidgin, whichtranslates as 'Makbed blong Willum Sekspia'. A company of actors,all versed in pidgin, enacts the drama, while Campbell interruptsthem at regular intervals with ''useful'' explanations andfootnotes.

''It's a huge improvement, there's none of that iambic pentameterrubbish which is Shakespeare's main drawback,'' he says. ''It'smuch more fun. It's like having one eye looking through a prismand one eye looking at the world. It doubles the experience."

Campbell has been interested in pidgin since the mid-1960s. Hehas performed some of his earlier one-man shows in the SouthPacific, delivering jokes in the style of a British music hallcomic - in pidgin - to baffled but appreciative audiences.

He once visited Chief Jack Naiva, advocate of the South PacificPhilipanti faith, which worships the Duke of Edinburgh, husband ofBritain's Queen Elizabeth II. Campbell says he was shown a''sacred'' coronation biscuit tin, dating from the early 1950s and,in return, presented Chief Naiva with a souvenir program of hisshow.

Now he has been invited back to the Pacific Islands to performhis unique version of Macbeth. ''Somebody from the NationalTheatre of Papua New Guinea came to see my production of Macbethwhen it was on in London and he has invited us to go up the SepikRiver in a couple of punts."

But it seems Campbell may have to modify his script. The culturalenvoy warned him that some of his translations were ''incrediblyrude'' - the translation of Lady Macbeth's line, ''Come Satan,unsex me here'' translates into ''Seten taken mi hambag'' and couldoffend a few pidgin speakers.

Apart from Papua New Guinea and the Sepik River, Campbell's tourwill take in New Zealand, Australia, the Solomon Islands andVanuatu. ''They've all got tribal languages, but if they want totalk inter-tribally, they talk pidgin,'' Campbell explains.

Ken Campbell occupies a unique position in British theatre. Ajobbing actor for many years, he often appeared in sitcoms andsoap operas, playing minor roles. On stage however the one-timescientist is celebrated as a world-class raconteur, clown andsatirist.

To fans of his theatre work he is 'worshipped' in his own right.During the 1980s he was a frequent performer at London's NationalTheatre, thanks to the patronage of ex-director Richard Eyre, oneof his most influential fans.

''I've got a kind of nutty following,'' he says, ''I try not to lookat them too closely. The challenge is always 'can I get this lotgoing?' Each night is infected by its own special excitement."

He gave up conventional acting on stage several years ago when heforgot his lines during a performance of The Alchemist inNottingham. Now he just makes it up as he goes along, or at leastthat's the way it seems as he allows his fertile mind to wanderfrom subject to subject, sometimes factual, sometimes anecdotal,sometimes pure fantasy.

''People ask me 'Is what you do true?' Well, most of it is. Allthe bits you wouldn't believe are true, only sometimes I put themin a different order."

(Inter Press Service)