Bob Kingdom - Biography

      Bob Kingdom was born in Cardiff, South Wales in 1944. Like Dylan Thomas he lived in an Anglicised Welsh environment marked by a tension between two cultures. From here comes a reworking of the English language under the rhythm of Welsh cadences with which Thomas himself was able to colonise the words of the English to surprise, startle and hypnotise. From an early age Bob Kingdom was himself captured by words and language. As a small boy he won literary competitions and distinguished himself in amateur dramatics.

      In adulthood, he quickly established himself in the world of advertising copy writing (pleading guilty to a number of catch phrases and images of the seventies!) Confused by a multiplicity of talents, he found himself involved in television voice-overs, poetry readings, a writer/performer of radio comedy shows (an early member of the satirical Week Ending team) and London exhibitions of his unique ‘fold’ portraits and op-art pictures.

      Few people who saw an early incarnation of Bob Kingdom’s Dylan Thomas at the Chelsea Arts Club would have realised the international critical acclaim which would follow, to demand that the show should run seemingly for ever and everywhere. It has travelled to the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland. And beyond the English speaking world to Italy, Israel, Hungary, the Netherlands and Turkey. The video of Dylan Thomas: Return Journey, also directed by Anthony Hopkins was shown on British and American television. The production was recorded as Play of the Week for BBC Radio World Service and released on audio cassette by Argo books. ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ was filmed by BBC Wales.

      The Truman Capote Talk Show was first performed at the Edinburgh festival in 1994, winning a Fringe Award for best new play. The show was then put on at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith where it was co-produced by Eric Clapton who had been previously impressed by a performance of Dylan Thomas: Return Journey. After touring Britain the production then moved to Paris , went to the Melbourne and Hong Kong Festivals. The show has also been to Hungary and will be touring Israel next year.

      The two shows were combined for the first time in 1994 in Greenwich Village, New York. Bob realised that his two portraits of characters bent on self destruction went very well together. He is currently working on a new show about the International American society hostess and gossip columnist, Elsa Maxwell, if J. Edgar Hoover can come up with the goods.