Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn

Kiln Theatre

North London's most vibrant theatre
  • Theatre | Private theatres
  • Kilburn
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Time Out says

After an ambitious refurbishment and upgrade, the venue formerly known as The Tricycle has rebranded as Kiln Theatre. The name's a homage to its home in Kilburn, and to its aim of being a crucible for new work that'll get the local community excited: including a new stage version of Zadie Smith's hit novel 'White Teeth'. 

A vibrant one-stop-shop for culture in north London, the Kiln Theatre packs a lot into its medium-sized frame: bar, kitchen, cinema and of course a theatre. Long run by Nicolas Kent, whose tenure was marked by pioneering work in the field of verbatim theatre, the current artistic director is Indhu Rubasingham, who's steered the venue through its recent transformation.

Details

Address
269 Kilburn High Rd
London
NW6 7JR
Transport:
Tube: Kilburn
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What’s on

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs

4 out of 5 stars
This review is from Soho Theatre in 2022; it transfers to Kiln Theatre with a partially changed cast that includes Liz Carr and Leah Harvey. The rainbow flag offers an idealised portrait of the LGBTQ-plus community: people of different stripes co-existing in harmony, each taking up an equal amount of space. But the reality is messier, scribbled over with conflicts and inequalities. Iman Qureshi's warm, complex play 'The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs' explores just how difficult it is to create a queer space, while showing how beautiful it can be when the stars align. Things start out in pretty formulaic style. Each week, a disparate gaggle of lesbians meet up in a leaky-roofed hall to sing in a choir, with the lofty goal of performing on the main stage at Pride. There's wildly confident womaniser Ellie (Fanta Barrie), hyper-woke academic Ana (Claudia Jolly), and her reluctantly-tagging-along butch engineer girlfriend Lori (Kibong Tanji) who turns out to have an amazing singing voice, all arranged into an approximation of harmony by self-styled OWL (older wiser lesbian) Connie (Shuna Snow). It could all be the beginnings of a dykier, hopefully less doomed remake of 'Glee'. But Qureshi's play is way smarter than that. She toys enjoyably with lesbian cliches (sensible footwear, veganism, buzzcuts) only to reach beyond them to tell less familiar stories. Like that of Dina (an engagingly puppyish Lara Sawalha), a Muslim woman who throws herself into choir as an escape from her...
  • Drama
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