Tricycle Theatre
Kilburn theatre, renamed Kiln Theatre in 2018, at the centre of the 2014 UK Jewish Film Festival dispute
| Tricycle Theatre
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre; charitable company |
| Founded | 27 October 1978 |
| Registration ID | 276892 (Charity Commission); company 01396429 |
| Headquarters | 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR |
| Location | London |
| Website | www.kilntheatre.com |
The Tricycle Theatre is a theatre on Kilburn High Road in north-west London. Since April 2018 the company has been named the Kiln Theatre. It is a registered charity (no. 276892) and a private company limited by guarantee (no. 01396429).[1][2] In August 2014, while it still operated under the Tricycle name, it was the subject of a public dispute with the UK Jewish Film Festival over a condition it sought to place on funding from the Embassy of Israel. The dispute, and a protest organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, are part of the founding-period record of that campaign.[3][4][5]
Company and charity
The company was incorporated on 27 October 1978 as Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company Limited. It was renamed Tricycle Theatre Company Limited on 29 January 1985, Kiln Theatre Limited on 13 April 2018, and Kiln Theatre on 2 July 2019. Its registered office is 269 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7JR. It is active, and its nature of business is given as "Artistic creation". Its latest accounts were made up to 31 March 2025.[1]
The charity was registered on 15 December 1978. The Commission lists its working names as Kiln Theatre and The Tricycle, and previous names as Kiln Theatre Limited and Tricycle Theatre Company Limited. For the year to 31 March 2025 it reported income of £4,029,392 and spending of £4,557,812, including £950,055 from two government grants, and 75 employees and 12 trustees. Its objects are "to promote, maintain, improve and advance education solely for the benefit of the public, particularly by the production of educational plays and the encouragement of the arts". The chair of trustees on the register, as of this check, is Sabine Chalmers, appointed 11 September 2024.[2]
UK Jewish Film Festival dispute, 2014
The theatre had hosted the UK Jewish Film Festival for the previous eight years and had been due to screen 26 films as part of the November 2014 festival.[3] On 5 August 2014 the dispute became public. The artistic director, Indhu Rubasingham, said that "the festival receives funding from the Israeli embassy and, given the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, we feel it is inappropriate to accept financial support from any government agency involved." She said the theatre had "offered to provide alternative funding to cover the loss of the contribution from the Israeli embassy" but that the festival "decided it was not willing to decline sponsorship from the Israeli embassy and, to our regret, withdrew the festival from the Tricycle."[3] The theatre's chairman, Jonathan Levy, wrote that the Tricycle "cannot be associated with any activity directly funded or supported by any party to the conflict" and that it would "be pleased to host the UKJFF provided that it occurs without the support or other endorsement from the Israeli government."[3]
Judy Ironside, founder and executive director of the festival, said the theatre had "shown themselves unwilling to work with what is clearly an apolitical cultural festival" and had "chosen a boycott over meaningful engagement".[3] The decision was criticised as antisemitic by, among others, the actress Maureen Lipman and by Stephen Pollard, then editor of The Jewish Chronicle, who wrote: "Be clear on this. @tricycletheatre is now officially antisemitic. It is singling out the Jewish state for boycott."[3] Nicholas Hytner, then director of the National Theatre, said he supported the Tricycle "without reservation" and that it was "entirely understandable that they felt obliged to insist that no government agency should sponsor the festival."[3] Those statements are recorded here as they were made; this page does not treat the accusation of antisemitism as a finding.
Jewish News reported on 13 August 2014 that Sir Trevor Chinn had ended a five-year funding relationship with the theatre, and that Celia Atkin had also withdrawn her support. Chinn said he had met Rubasingham "two weeks ago" and had made it "absolutely clear" that the theatre would lose support "if the move was confirmed". The paper also reported that the Charity Commission had "received complaints" and was "assessing the concerns… to determine whether there is a regulatory role", and that the Arts Council had said it was "confident that the Tricycle is not in breach" of its funding agreement, the law, or Charity Commission regulations. It said "around 200 people protested the theatre's decision outside the venue last Thursday" (7 August 2014), "organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism".[4] Receipt of complaints is not a regulatory finding.
On 15 August 2014 the theatre and the festival issued a joint statement. The theatre "withdrawn its objection and invited back the UK Jewish Film Festival on the same terms as in previous years, with no restrictions on funding from the Embassy of Israel in London". The statement added that, "although the festival is not able to return in 2014, we hope to begin the process of rebuilding trust and confidence with a view to holding events in the future."[5] The statement does not itself establish what caused the change of position.
Rename, 2018
On 13 April 2018, the same day as the Companies House change of name, The Guardian reported that Rubasingham was relaunching the Tricycle as the Kiln Theatre after a £7m refurbishment, with a reopening planned for September 2018. She had been artistic director for six years. She said the new name was "associative with Kilburn" and that kilns were "melting pots associated with heat and cooking."[6]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Companies House, "KILN THEATRE, company number 01396429", accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, "Kiln Theatre, charity number 276892", full print, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Hannah Ellis-Petersen, "Tricycle theatre refuses to host UK Jewish Film Festival while it has Israeli embassy funding", The Guardian, 6 August 2014 (URL dated 5 August 2014; the page records that the article was amended on 6 August).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "EXCLUSIVE: Tricycle donors pull funding after Film Festival boycott", Jewish News, 13 August 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Tricycle Theatre in UK Jewish Film Festival U-turn", BBC News, 15 August 2014.
- ↑ Nosheen Iqbal, "Kilburn's Tricycle relaunches as Kiln theatre with Zadie Smith's White Teeth", The Guardian, 11 April 2018.