Jonathan Kent (director)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jonathan Kent (born 1946, South Africa) is an English theatre director and opera director. He is most well known as one of the director/producer partners of London's Almeida Theatre between 1990 to 2002.

After an upbringing in South Africa,where he went to school at Diocesan College, he came to London in the 1970s and trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Working under Giles Havergal and Phillip Prowse at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, he found that "acting taught him just how difficult it is to act....acting is a valiant pursuit" ^[1].

By 1990 Kent had formed an association with the Scottish actor, Ian McDiarmid, and between 1990 and 2002 as joint artistic directors, they turned the Almeida Theatre into a major production house. The success of this venture - presenting a wide range of international plays - led to productions transferring to the West End (14 between 1990 and 2002 under Kent's tenure) and also to Broadway.

For the stage, Kent's most recent production of Brian Friel's Faith Healer was a big success in Dublin and on Broadway.

[edit] Kent as opera director

Following his departure from the Almeida, Kent has emerged as a significant force in the world of opera. His operatic directing debut was during the Santa Fe Opera's 2003 season production of Katya Kabanova , a production received with great acclaim. ^[2]

His first British production was not actually an opera at all but Michael Tippett's oratorio, A Child of our Time in 2005. He returned that same year to Santa Fe for Mozart's Lucio Silla as well as in 2006, when he directed the US premiere of Thomas Adès' The Tempest, again with significant critical acclaim: ^[3]

In Britain, Kent's most recent work in opera has been on a new production of Puccini's Tosca for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Expectations were high, since this was Covent Garden's replacement for the famous Franco Zeffirelli production for Maria Callas in 1964, and which had been in use for 42 years. Kent "believes Tosca - which Puccini adapted from a five-act French play - is an ideal vehicle for his talents. "What I admire about it, quite apart from the thrilling music, is its theatre craft," he said...."It's a taut, sinewy melodrama, exquisitely put together. There isn't an ounce of flesh on it.... "That's what interested me: to find a way within that hurtling narrative to examine the relationships and its themes of sex, power and death." ^[4]

He is due to direct Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

[edit] References

^ The Observer (London), 27 January 2002
^ Simon Williams, Opera News, “Director Jonathan Kent is new to opera, having made his name in spoken drama in London. He displayed a natural feel for the dynamics and rhetoric of opera, and he directed with unwavering attention to the score. In short, this was an outstanding interpretation of a great modern tragedy".
^ Hugh Canning of The Times (London), June 2006 writes:

"Kent’s production began with one of the most magical stage images I can recall in recent opera seasons. Paul Brown’s permanent set is a sandy island with a pool of water representing the sea: in the prelude, a procession of fully clothed people (presumably the Neapolitan shipwreck survivors) walk out of the water like amphibious creatures, a dazzlingly surreal opening gambit in a production remarkable for its narrative clarity and observant delineation of character.

Kent and Brown achieve an organic fusion of theatrical elements with the simplest of means. The dune-like “island” provides opportunities for wittily surprising entrances — at one point, Ariel’s head pops out of Prospero’s magic cabinet — and perilous exits — the comic characters, Stefano and Trinculo, are swallowed up as if by quicksand".
^ BBC online interview