Hitler's Cosmopolitan Bastard

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I haven't often had enough time to get involved in audiobook narration but I was delighted recently to be invited by former BBC correspondent and European diplomat Martyn Bond to narrate his magisterial 2021 biography Hitler's Cosmopolitan Bastard about Richard Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, someone of whom I'm ashamed to say I had never heard.

Known as “The Grandfather of Europe”, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi was a personal friend of Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer and also served as the model for the fictional resistance hero Victor Laszlo in the film Casablanca.

It's a story of extraordinary resonance for our times. Following the devastation of the First World War the glamorous young Count, son of an Austro-Hungarian diplomat father and Japanese mother, set out on a political mission to create a United States of Europe with no internal borders, a common currency and a single passport. Thousands flocked to support his ideas, including leading European statesmen and members of the intelligentsia, among them Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. The Count's message infuriated Adolf Hitler, who described him in Mein Kampf as a "cosmopolitan bastard", and he narrowly escaped capture and assassination by the Gestapo.

An inspirational figure and brilliant networker, the Count described himself as a “European patriot” who saw international relations in terms of continents, not countries. His vision has never seemed more relevant.

The section on Germany in the 1930's is particularly chilling for our current times, telling as it does the story of a charismatic leader who won an election by stirring up disaffection among working people and blaming an "enemy within" and then set about dismantling the offices of state and suppressing all independent voices. At the risk of spoiling the plot, things didn't end too well...

The audiobook has just been published on Amazon and Audible. Here's the prologue as a taster...

Venus rides again...

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Following critically-acclaimed performances in Stratford and London, brilliant classical pianist Gamal Khamis and I are greatly looking forward to bringing Venus & Adonis to OSO Arts Centre (The Theatre on Barnes Pond), SW London on Wed 24th Sept, directed by Georgia Brown. Please do join us for Shakespeare's riveting early narrative poem, interspersed with Felix Mendelssohn's hauntingly beautiful Songs Without Words. It's a constantly surprising work that starts as high comedy and ends in the depths of tragedy.

https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173665550

Reviews from Shakespeare In Music Festival, Stratford May 2025:

“Remarkable and of the highest quality… Christopher Kent didn’t read Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, he performed it, creating wonderful distinctive voices for the two characters and the narrator...beautifully matched in tempo and mood by Gamal Khamis’s playing....I was bowled over by the quality of the performances.” Stratford Herald

"Actor Christopher Kent gave a brilliant performance, beautifully accompanied by Gamal Khamis on piano." Richard Morris

28 Years Later

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I have recently been enjoying recording the v/o’s for the trailer campaign for Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, which opened in the UK yesterday. Kudos to the teams at Buddha Jones and Empire Design for a brilliant campaign for a compelling and deeply unsettling film, and not the least unsettling aspect of the trailers is the other voice (apart from mine) chanting repetitively in the background.

If you’ve seen the full theatrical trailer you’ll have heard it in all its blood-curdling glory and the producers explained to me that there’s a very interesting story behind it. It’s a 1915 recording of the American actor Taylor Holmes (though sounding very British) reciting Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 poem Boots, which is set in the Boer war and represents soldiers marching towards their fate (hence “Boots, boots, boots, boots” and “There’s no discharge from the war”), and is so unsettling that apparently it is used by the US Navy to train personnel to withstand psychological torture.

It’s a brilliant rendition of the poem and well worth listening to in its entirety here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s9RYG-iMdx0. The way he builds the tension towards the climax is masterly and frankly terrifying. In a nice twist of fate Taylor Holmes, who died in 1959, was awarded Best Voiceover in the 2025 Golden Trailer Awards, and who can begrudge him that?

Venus & Adonis in the West End

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Just under three weeks till we perform Shakespeare's immortal but rarely heard solo poem Venus & Adonis at Jermyn Street Theatre on Wed July 9th, 7.30pm. Still a few tickets left so please do join me along with brilliant pianist Gamal Khamis, who intersperses the poem with Mendelssohn's lyrically beautiful Songs Without Words. It's a constantly surprising work that starts as high comedy and ends in the depths of tragedy.

www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/venus-adonis/

Reviews from Shakespeare In Music Festival, Stratford last month:

“Remarkable and of the highest quality… Christopher Kent didn’t read Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, he performed it, creating wonderful distinctive voices for the two characters and the narrator...beautifully matched in tempo and mood by Gamal Khamis’s playing....I was bowled over by the quality of the performances.” Stratford Herald

"Actor Christopher Kent gave a brilliant performance, beautifully accompanied by Gamal Khamis on piano." Richard Morris

Things I Know To Be True

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I’m thrilled to be playing Bob Price in Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell at OSO Arts Centre, Barnes, SW13 0LF. The show runs 2-11 April and tickets are on sale now.

As beautifully touching as it is funny and bold, Things I Know To Be True tells the story of the family of Bob and Fran Price through the eyes of their four grown children. Each struggle to define themselves beyond their parents’ love and expectations. It is a complex and intense study of the mechanics of a family that is both poetic, brutally frank and ultimately deeply moving. Set in the South Australian suburb of Hallett Cove and first seen at Adelaide’s State Theatre Company in 2016, Things I Know To Be True is a superb piece of theatre, with a stellar cast under acclaimed director Lydia Sax. Please do join us!

An Exquisite Harmony at The Great Green Barn

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We’re delighted to be visiting the stunning new venue near Guildford that is The Great Green Barn to present our hit show An Exquisite Harmony, about the lives, loves and music of Robert & Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The brilliant Gamal Khamis (piano) and Sarah Sherborne (actress) will be joining me for what’s sure to be a memorable performance, which will be followed by a special Q&A focussing on the background of this fascinating story.

Sunday 23rd March, 7.30pm, Great Green Barn, Upper House Lane, Shamley Green, Guildford, GU5 0SX

Tickets £25/£16 www.greatgreenbarn.com

Emilia Pérez

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I was delighted to see Emilia Pérez receive the attention it deserves at the Golden Globes the other week and now to have received eleven BAFTA nominations, with SAG and Academy Awards nominations news also eagerly awaited. It’s one of the most original, compelling and surprising movies I've seen this year and it’s been a great pleasure to be closely involved with the marketing campaign. Here's one of the radio spots I voiced.

Venus & Adonis

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In my latest collaboration with the brilliant classical pianist Gamal Khamis, we are previewing the brand-new programme we have been commissioned to perform at the Shakespeare in Music festival in Stratford next year, featuring a complete performance of one of Shakespeare's most ravishing early solo works interspersed with selections from Mendelssohn's hauntingly beautiful Songs Without Words.

Shakespeare’s sparkling narrative poem Venus and Adonis is a witty, transformative and ultimately moving retelling of Ovid’s classic tale, in which the goddess of love’s desire to woo the most beautiful of the mortals and waylay him from hunting eventually ends in tragedy.

Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words were composed between 1829 and 1845 and achieved almost instant popularity during and after his short lifetime. Their lilting and poignant lyricism make them ideal companion pieces for Shakespeare’s vivid tale.

Sunday 3rd November, 3pm

St Mary’s Perivale, Perivale Lane, London, UB6 8SS

and live online at www.st-marys-perivale.org.uk

(Free with retiring collection)

An Exquisite Harmony at 2024 Swaledale Festival

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We were delighted to perform An Exquisite Harmony at a packed Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, North Yorkshire as part of the 2024 Swaledale Festival on June 4th. The show tells the story of the love triangle between Robert & Clara Schumann and the young Johannes Brahms with extracts from their letters, diaries and music, performed by me, Sarah Sherborne and Gamal Khamis (piano). Next performance is at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre on Sunday August 4th at 5pm. Tickets now available from the box office

ITV Travel Up promos

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I was quite amused to be asked to voice these ITV bumpers “in the style of” Brian Blessed recently. Impressions aren’t really my thing but I have spent quite a few sessions in the studio with the great man over the years and could certainly remember the unflagging energy he brings to everything (even in his eighties). Most actors shy away from their catch phrases but Brian is given to yelling “Gordon’s Alive!” at every opportunity and then there are the stories… I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in a studio. What a character! Anyway, these spots are by way of my homage to a great actor and gentleman.

Enoch Arden

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I'm delighted to be returning to OSO Arts Centre, Barnes, London, SW13 on Wed 22 May at 7.30pm with amazing pianist Gamal Khamis to perform Tennyson's thrilling and deeply moving epic poem Enoch Arden, as set for speaker and piano by #richardstrauss in 1897. With words and music of haunting beauty, it tells the heart-rending story of a sailor lost at sea who eventually returns home to find his life has changed irrevocably. Enoch Arden is a hidden gem of the romantic repertoire and a masterwork of the now almost lost genre of musical melodrama.

We originally performed it as a livestream during the 2020 lockdown (when I first rashly agreed to commit all 7,000 words to memory). We have since given performances round the country (including Swaledale Festival, Three Choirs Festival & Jermyn Street Theatre) and recorded it as a critically acclaimed CD/streaming release for SOMM Recordings in 2022.

Please do join us. Tickets are now on sale at https://osoarts.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173654663

“A wholly exceptional and thoroughly engrossing achievement”

Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion

“A gift to hear the poem in its original language…a significant coup”

David Nice, BBC Music Magazine

"The performance by Gamal Khamis and Christopher Kent had me totally transfixed"

Alexis Paterson, CEO Three Choirs Festival

“Thought-provoking and riveting… you’ll be entranced”

Clare Seymour, Opera Today

“A performance that’s as gripping and ultimately moving as the story itself”

Ron Schepper, Textura Magazine

One Voice Conference 2024

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Thanks to the estimable @Peter Dickson for the invitation to speak at the One Voice Conference

UK 2024 (I’m not sure how my photo ended up quite so terrifying but believe it is due to this year's punk theme). I’m looking forward to giving a presentation on Saturday 18th May at 2.30pm in person and online titled “The Lyric Voice – Taking your reads to the next level”.

I’ll be talking about my work in trailers, promo, commercials and narration and how it is informed by my experience as an actor on stage, screen and radio; in particular how to combine textual analysis skills with emotional truth to make v/o work and auditions more compelling and human in the age of AI and ever-increasing competition. If you're planning to be there please do join me.

Booking link (and full agenda): www.onevoiceconference.com/one-voice-conference-uk-2024/