Amit Sharma Artistic Director Kiln Theatre Kilburn

Amit Sharma, who took over last October, is looking forward to a packed autumn season of film and drama at the High Road venue.

He says he hasn't overhauled the legacy of previous incumbent Indhu Rubasinham - who left to run the National Theatre - rather he is building on it.

"I did know the organisation before, as associate director the reason I was in the building was I shared the values, the mission, with Indhu.

"The changes, if there are any, are how we can be more inclusive to different audiences."

That, he says, includes comedy, book launches, and other entertainment strands like gaming to make "a vibey, buzzy building".

"A place for the Kilburn community to interact with brilliant work and engage in different ways. If theatre is not their thing, instead of saying 'shame that's the only thing we do', we do other things and make this place a destination.

"Already there is a good offer, we are building on what she's done, but we have new ideas for us to make this place sing even more."

Upon arrival, Sharma was keen to honour plays commissioned by Rubasingham, including season opener Pins and Needles by Rob Drummond.

Season opener Pins and Needles focuses on the debate around vaccination (Image: Mark Senior)

It weaves together 'verbatim' stories; someone whose parent died from the Covid vaccine, a mother dithering over giving her sons the MMR, and the father of immunisation Edward Jenner.

But as the play goes on, it questions how facts are "manipulated and edited."

"It's a brilliant, provocative play that goes to the heart of truth, lies and misinformation," says Sharma.

"During the pandemic, the topic of vaccines was so polarising - families stopped talking to each other.

"Rob wants to put those topics on stage in a form that makes the audience go 'I may not have changed my mind, but now I can talk about it and understand the other person's point of view.'"

The Kiln Theatre in Kilburn High Road (Image: Philip Vile)

The season continues with New York-set The Purists about a legendary emcee and DJ confronted by two young women who put their rap battling to the test.

"It's a fun hip hop comedy that deals with contemporary issues around sexuality and race, and that idea of what people cling onto when things change, and how they remember the past better than it actually was."

Roy Williams' Lonely Londoners is "an amazing Windrush story that will really resonate with audiences here."

And Amy Ng's Shanghai Dolls is the true story of a friendship between two actresses in 30s China, one of whom become China’s first female director, the other, the architect of the Cultural Revolution. 

"Four different plays, serving different audiences, who will hopefully have a great night at the theatre and come out feeling different to when they came in," says Sharma.

"We want people to feel the stories from their community are being represented in the best way possible. We can tell those big stories that are rooted in a specific community but have the breadth to invite other people in to engage and be moved by them. That mission excites me."

Sharma grew up in Southall, and now lives in East London. As someone who didn't come from a theatregoing tradition, he understands the power of education.

"School is so important - the arts are being decimated in schools. It was school that took me to see a play and a panto when I was six or seven, my parents didn't take us to the theatre, but they did encourage me."

At 19, he ditched university for a foundation course for disabled actors with East London-based Graeae theatre company.

"That was a game changer. If it wasn't for that my life would be so different."

Since then his career has taken in directing for screen and stage and being deputy artistic director at Birmingham Rep Theatre, with a focus on giving a platform to under represented writers and performers, making theatre "reflective of the world we are living in" and "developing the next generation of artists."

Diversity, he says, shouldn't feel innovative: "It should feel part of what we are because that's what the community is, all those different types of people."

He adds: "Buildings are not just buildings they are people. They can make people feel valued. Lots of other places talk about that diverse mission but here it's part of the fabric, it seeps through the building and the people."

Engaging audiences who don't think theatre is for them is also part of his mission, because he loves it.

"I love making something on film, but there is something old about theatre.

"There is something amazing and communal about the experience of sitting next to someone else, watching something, and being totally thrilled. It's fundamentally about that communication between performers and audiences.

"When it works there is no better feeling."

But as a disabled person he believes there is some way to go in having truly diverse writing and performance.

"The attitude towards deaf and disabled creatives has completely moved on from five years ago, the talent was always there, but people's minds have changed about the talent - you can apply that to race gender, sexuality," he says.

"But there is still a gap in casting disabled actors in non disabled roles - that has yet to shift."

Casting and disability has a vexed history, "cripping up is the term," when Daniel Day Lewis' performance in My Left Foot remains among the best known portrayals of a disabled person.

"Anyone can play anyone is fine, but that hasn't been the case historically and it has to apply to everyone," he says.

"We are putting on make-believe, as long as the audience understand the logic of that make-believe, they will go with it."

The same is true of playwrighting: "We should all feel we can write about anything, the problem is when the opportunity hasn't been there over the years."

And while a part should be written or played by someone with "a lived experience" he's eager that people aren't only commissioned to explore that experience.

"It's reductive - you want to write about something that is nothing to do with you."

Pins and Needles runs at Kiln Theatre from September 19th until October 24.