Theatre
Before turning to film and television, Ken was a theatre director. With Shirley Barrie he co-founded the Wakefield Tricycle Company in London, England in 1972. Beginning as a lunchtime theatre producing plays that had never been produced in England, the WTC grew into a touring company commissioning and producing plays from new and established British writers, and presenting them in venues around the country and at theatres like the King’s Head and the Bush in London. In 1980, with the support of the London Borough of Brent, Ken and Shirley and a small dedicated team opened the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London. Ken was artistic director of The Tricycle from 1980-1984. He directed over 40 productions for the Wakefield Tricycle Company and the Tricycle Theatre.
Since 1980, the Tricycle Theatre has been presenting new and challenging work that attracts and reflects the culturally diverse local community of Kilburn. Under artistic director, Nicolas Kent (1984-2012), the theatre staged a series of ground-breaking “tribunal plays” which won the theatre an Evening Standard Special Drama Award in 2006 for pioneering political work. In May of 2012 Indhu Rabusingham took up her position as the theatre’s third artistic director.
The complex also houses a 300 seat cinema, an art gallery, an outstanding rehearsal hall, and offers a full programme of theatre and visual arts workshops for children.
Tales of the Tricycle Theatre, by Terry Stoller was published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in 2013. It provides an inside look at the history of the theatre.