Nicolas Kent


Nicolas Kent is a British theatre director. His father arrived in Britain in 1936, a Jewish-German refugee, and changed his name from Kahn to Kent.

Early life and education

Kent, who was brought up in Hampstead Garden Suburb, was educated at Stowe School from 1958 to 1963 and at St Catharine's College, Cambridge where he read English from 1964 to 1967.

Professional career

Kent began his career in theatre as a trainee director at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1967 and then worked from 1970 to 1972 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, before working for six years as the administrative director of the Oxford Playhouse.
He became artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre in 1984 and stood down from the role in 2012.
Kent's work at the Tricycle included verbatim political plays. Some of these were edited by Richard Norton-Taylor: Half the Picture examined the arms to Iraq inquiry, Tactical Questioning examined the inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, and The Colour of Justice examined the Macpherson inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. Kent also commissioned theatrical responses to the detentions at Guantanamo Bay, the 2011 London riots, and – in The Great Game – Britain's involvement in Afghanistan.
Under Kent's direction, the Tricycle also presented the London premieres of many Irish plays, such as Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, as well as staging productions with an emphasis on Afro-Caribbean experience, such as Mustapha Matura's Playboy of the West Indies, Lara Foot Newton's Karoo Moose and the Not Black and White trilogy. The theatre also saw the premieres of Kat and the Kings, a musical which won two Olivier awards, and Patrick Barlow's adaptation of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Kent chose to cease running the Tricycle following a £350,000 cut in the venue's annual artistic subsidy.

Honours

In 2012 he became the first person to be awarded the freedom of the London Borough of Brent.