Address:
269 Kilburn Road
London NW6
Tube Stop(s):
Kilburn--(Turn Right when you exit the station)
Phone:
020 7328 1000
0171 328 1000
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Address: 269 Kilburn Road London NW6 Tube Stop(s): Kilburn--(Turn Right when you exit the station) Phone: 020 7328 1000 0171 328 1000
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| Performance Schedule: | Evening performances and weekend matinees. |
| Ticket Info:
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Tickets generally cost from £8 to £15 with concessions (lower priced tickets) available for children, senior citizens/OAPs and sometime members of performing arts communities. Sometimes offers "early bird tickets" for purchases well before a show opens. |
What's Playing:
"A Whistle in the Dark", Tom Murphy, March 29th to May 6th. Set in the 1960s, in England, an Irish man and his English wife are visited by his brother and father as they prepare to confront a rival gang.
Description:
The Tricycle Theatre isn't your typical pub theatre (a pub with a theatre in the back room or upstairs). Instead it is a theatre and cinema that happens to have a nice little pub in the middle of it. The Tricycle is almost a community center for the area, a kind of central meeting place for folks to get together and enjoy themselves. It hosts Saturday shows for children and takes part in a youth theatre program in Brent Schools.
The Tricycle Theatre began it's life in 1980 in a converted "Foresters' Hall". However, the space was almost completely destroyed in 1987 by a fire. While a potential tragedy at the time, what sprung from the ashes of the Tricycle is much more than the original theatre ever was. The new Tricycle complex includes a cinema, a 225 seat black box theatre, a rehearsal studio, an arts studio, a smaller theatre/workshop space and art gallery, cafe and bar. This doesn't feel like your typical pub theatre hidden in the back room. If feels like an incredible art complex for a small neighborhood.
The Tricycle Theatre's plays are usually topical or political in some way. Whether they are new plays, which most are, or revivals they generally have a political or moral feel to them. They almost always have something to say rather than just being entertainment. Which isn't to say they aren't entertaining. The theatre does comedies, dramas and musicals.
The Tricycle has been home to British premieres of several August Wilson plays (which later moved on to larger venues), and James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner" which moved on the West End. The Tricycle was also the original home to the British premieres of "Ain't Misbehavin'" the Fats Waller musical and the South African musical "Kat & the Kings" both of which moved on to the West End.
Because the Tricycle is more modern than most pub theatres they have better facilities for bigger more technically challenging productions. Production values are consistently excellent. Designers usually have strong credentials either in London, elsewhere in the UK, or internationally (for the many productions with international pedigrees).
The theatre is a sort of modified thrust stage with most seating directly in front of the stage and facing it. However there are also a couple rows on each side that face in towards this center section of seats. The view from these side seats is usually fine unless you get too close to the stage and start losing some angles. The Tricycle also has a couple of rows of seating upstairs which are just fine, but you lose some of the intimacy you expect from a pub theatre. You can get that kind of intimacy back by showing up early and getting seats in the first few rows. This isn't a necessity as all the productions are directed to play to the entire 225 seat theatre (much bigger than your typical pub theatre). The stage is very deep which is usually used to full advantage by the productions. It is not surprising that Tricycle musicals have moved to the West End more often than musicals from many other pub theatres because the Tricycle's stage is much more like a West End or Broadway stage than you'd ever expect in a pub theatre.
The pub is more of a cafe than a pub and seems primarily provide a meal or an ale to folks seeing a play or film (unlike many pub theatres which are also successful pubs separate from being theatres). The menu seems a tab more upscale than most pubs (but you can still get a sandwich or baked potato and the prices are typical of pub fare.
The Tricycle learned from it's near disaster and has much more robust fund raising and sponsor program than most pub theatres. At many performances you will see a few seats reserved for donors to the theatre.
The Tricycle has their own website at http://www.tricycle.co.uk.