The Tricycle Campaign is delighted and relieved to learn that our theatre won an award of financial assistance in Round 1 of the Culture Relief Fund. The money, over £360k, will keep the theatre afloat in 2020 and it can be assumed that the government will continue to protect this arts venue from permanent closure in Round 2 and beyond. Generous congratulates are due, deserved and hereby delivered. Long live the Tricycle.
In 2019, The Stage magazine published two articles arguing that “Theatres risk becoming irrelevant unless their leaders are prepared to give over power to local communities.” (Madani Younis and Tarek Iskander in The Stage, 16th Oct 2019); and “Theatre must stop imposing ideas on communities [and] build trust” (Lyn Gardner in The Stage, 23rd Sept 2019).
If only they had spoken up the year before.
Yet, given these opinion pieces, it sits oddly that The Stage awarded the Tricycle Campaign “Most Pointless Protest 2018” (The Stage, 20th Dec 2018). We are rightly proud of that award because it shows what an impact we made in the theatre world – and that we were ahead of the curve.
In contrast, Kiln Theatre’s rebrand is still the most pointless name change and this campaign still hopes that one day its management will “give over power” to the local community, “stop imposing ideas” on Kilburn and “get out of the way”.
We just want our Tricycle back.
My considered verdict on they who named the Kiln, is: “they have been at a great feast of languages, and stol’n the scraps” (Love’s Labour’s Lost).
Often enough the most remarkable theatre in town – Financial Times
The landmark that put Kilburn on the map was stripped of its identity, leaving those around it feeling bereaved for the theatre they loved.
Our campaign hopes the Tricycle name and good sense will be restored; and that Kilburn’s theatre will reconnect with the community it humbly used to serve.
Since Spring 2018, by standing outside the theatre with a clipboard (thank you Richard, Jean, Judy and Ags), by having stalls at Summer festivals (thank you Sally) and farmers markets (thank you Alison and Paul), and via an online petition (thank you Maggie and Phil) we’ve collected and collated over 3,500 petition signatures (thank you Linda).
Few will have seen us in the winter months but as spring returns, it’s time to collect a lot more. We’ve not been idle (thank you Frankie, Celia, Terry, Mr S, Lynda, Rupert and Glenis) and now you can sign our petition on our website where, in keeping with GDPR regulations, you can also join our mailing list if you wish (thank you Phil).
If you do, you’ll be the first to hear from us when they restore the internationally-
famous name of the crown jewel of Kilburn High Road, the Tricycle Theatre.
The website (thank you Alex and Bosco) has been rewritten over the winter months (thank you Rachel). There you can now read all our previous newsletters (thank you Philippa) and we’ve introduced infographics to convey our purpose more quickly (thank you Heidi). We’ve changed our old colours (thank you Duncan) in order to promote the blue and white colour scheme and Helvetica font of our beloved Tricycle Theatre. On the website we’ve published as much as we can of about 100 press articles we’ve so far managed to generate and added blog posts like this one by me, Martin. You may have found your way here via Facebook advertising (thank you Paula) and if you have any feedback we’d be glad to receive it.
Our campaign team celebrated together in December (thank you Alan) and March (thank you Patrick). It remains for me to thank Wendy and Rob, Rosalie and the secret Triker, Aleks and Mary, Pam and the lady at No.58, Yvonne and Tim, Nick and Candice, Sandy and Nicola, Jody and Eugene, Bev and Jason, Marion and Anna. I can’t not mention Ken Chubb and his wife, the late Shirley Barrie, who started the Tricycle. Oh, and of course I must thank The Stage magazine for the accolade, awarding us the “Most Pointless Protest of 2018” award. To paraphrase the wonderful Olivia Coleman, if I’ve missed anyone out, meet me later and I’ll give you a massive snog.
It is hard enough to believe that Indhu Rubasingham, the artistic director, would squander such a world-famous brand as the Tricycle, but for the trustees to support her without doing proper research and then to ignore everyone’s love for the very theatre that these people are supposed to protect, turns disbelief into anger. It makes no commercial sense, it flies in the face of the Charity Commission’s code of conduct and it makes a mockery of community engagement.
You’d think if thousands of your supporters and donors express heartfelt outrage then restoring the name is a no-brainer. It would have been the responsible thing to do. I honestly believed that those in charge would be impressed by the degree of affection demonstrated by previously loyal supporters of the Tricycle. Thousands have made their feelings known through emails, letters, petitions and demonstrations. Clearly, the name change was a terrible error of judgment but instead of listening to us, we were dismissed, seen as a nuisance and fed dishonest statements about non-existent support. To maintain the stone wall, we were misled by Kiln Theatre about consultations and patronised by “astroturfed” social media coverage.
Please sign up to our mailing list. Our primary aim is to restore the name of the Tricycle in some meaningful way. You may have seen some of more than 50 news articles we’ve succeeded in generating since the renaming announcement on 11 April, including five in Private Eye. We are very active but to be clear, our protests have nothing to do with the artistic direction of the theatre. We are not calling for a boycott or anybody’s resignation. We just want the name back.
Of course, it’s not just a name. The Tricycle stood for something and grew in reputation to become Kilburn’s crown jewel. It put Kilburn on the map internationally and made people feel they had a friend on the High Road. In contrast, the name change and the manner of its imposition is deeply resented. It is clear from the near-unanimous reaction of thousands of people that Kilburn feels betrayed and bereaved.
I feel so very let down by Brent.
How can it be right that a theatre gets stolen by its Trustees moments after the public grant is removed?
The theatre is a public body in receipt of public funds, that owes its very existence to the support of Brent Council for 40 years, and has been repeatedly bailed out of perennial financial crises by the citizens of Brent.
It was Brent residents who gave the money to Brent for the Tricycle in the first place. Brent owns the freehold. Brent was hoodwinked by the theatre’s duplicitous fundraising. Two of the organisations supposedly consulted about the planning application have not received the consultation letter from Brent.
It seems to be a failure of local government on many levels and more generally, of local governance of the Arts.
The theatre’s Board is behaving like the venue is their private fiefdom, without accountability. Yet, Brent residents can’t get their council to represent their feelings. Not the representatives on the Board, not the Planning Committee, nowhere, it seems, is there a structure on whom the residents of Brent can rely. How can that be right?
I feel so very let down by Brent.
