Wednesday 11 April 2018

Kilburn's Tricycle goes potty


Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of the Tricycle Theatre, , announced this morning that the well known and respected Tricycle Theatre, known affectionately as 'The Trike' by locals, has been renamed the Kiln Theatre. She said:
This is an opporunity for us to be really proud. A name can't do anything itself. It goes hand in hand with our ethos, or mission statement and our programme. This is the time to do different things.
The theatre has reopened its doors after an extensive refurbishment and fundriasing programme.

Kiln Theatre website HERE

UPDATE Friday April 13th

Since the announcement there has been much criticism of the change on social media.

A petition to reverse the name change can be found HERE  

5 comments:

Dave Statham said...

I checked the date to see if this was an apriA fool!

Martin Francis said...

Yes I have emailed them to ask if there is a press release explaining the change of name. The above statement doesn't really do that job...

Anonymous said...

It appears that anything that has some history in Brent is being removed. The Tricycle Theatre may only be a name (in some people's eyes) but it is recognised by very many people in and out of Brent. Yet another misconceived idea on the part of the Artistic Director.

Martin Francis said...

This is the derivation of the name (from Wikipedia): The theatre opened on the Kilburn High Road, London, in 1980 as the permanent home of the Wakefield Tricycle Company, a touring theatre company that was known for producing British premieres, new writing, children's shows and theatre for the community in London and the South East. The Wakefield Tricycle Company had been started in 1972 by Ken Chubb and Shirley Barrie, performing initially in a room behind the Pindar of Wakefield pub in King's Cross. The name 'Wakefield Tricycle Company' was adopted as a pun on the Wakefield Cycle of mystery plays, the pub's name and the fact that the initial company had three members.

Pete Firmin said...

I have emailed them objecting to the change. Why change a name that is recognised? Maybe it is part of the attempts to take Kilburn "upmarket". Maybe it is part of moving the Tricycle away from the `edgy' stuff it put on in the past. Either way, not a welcome change.