LATEST NEWS
It's good to back with you after a long dormant break!
My travel guide "The Complete Ruhrgebiet" (Klartext Verlag, Essen), has been on the market since April 2018. You can buy it from any online shop or direct from me with a dedication, if you send me an email.

"Stronger than Superman" enjoyed a very successful Greek premiere in Athens in October 2018 and was proving a box office hit until Covid put a stop to it all shortly at the end of March 2020. This meant that I was able to get over to Athens on March 7th 2020 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its world premiere at the GRIPS Theater in Berlin in 1980.
Now a Russian translation has been completed I am hoping for a premiere there sometime in the near future...and of course to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2030 (if I'm still alive, that is!)

WELCOME!
This website will introduce you to some of the activities I am involved in as a writer and translator. I have been working in theatre since 1968 when I left Drama Centre London, where I trained as an actor. Before that I read French and Italian at the University of Wales, during which time I spent a year as a teacher in St.Etienne in the Massif Central, where I wrote a BA thesis on "Jacques Copeau, Jean Daste et La Comedie de St.Etienne". I moved to Berlin from London in 1981 after my play Stronger than Superman had opened at the GRIPS theatre.
I now live in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, on which I have written three travel guides, "The Wupper Valley", "Dusseldorf, Aachen and the Lower Rhine" and "Tour the Ruhr", now updated and retitled as "The Complete Ruhrgebiet". My other activities include a one-man cabaret show in German on the area, talks, lectures, theatre criticism and workshops, and in 2010 I curated an exhibition of major living European poets for the RUHR.2010 cultural capital of Europe celebrations, entitled "Europe...a poem". A German/English book was published by Klartext Verlag to accompany the exhibition which was revived in Castrop-Rauxel in 2014 as part of the town's anniversary celebrations. The book gives facsimiles of the original handwritten poems, German and English translations of all the poems, along with essays, photos and biographical details.
And to finish where I began - the theatre.
I have now completed a new tragi-comedy - in German and English - entitled "The Clearing". It needs a single setting - a clearing in a forest - and three actors (1 M around 50-60 years old, 2 F, one of whom around 60 years old or older: or 2 M, 1 F). Even better in my opinion would be for it to have a complete ensemble of all colours, genders and ages who could swap the parts at various intervals, irrespective of the time scale. Although the action of the play is realistic there are superficial illogical irritations (like different time scales for the two main actors, one of whom lives on our time scale and the other claims to have lived over millions of years, possibly in different bodies). As you might guess, although the play is superficially realistic on the human level there are illogical irritations that allow me to explore a transcendent mythical reality, including the question of what happens to us when we die, and how best to live in preparation for a possible rebirth. I'm not talking about a Christian heaven and hell here but rather a Buddhist reality leading to nirvana. Digital technology and effects would help immensely to emphasis the basic unreality. Reader requests from innovative theatre-makers are welcome by email: roy.kift@t-online.de.

The Covid break has meant that I have finally given up all professional activities (apart from cultural translations which I enjoy immensely), to live a more relaxed balanced life. This includes developing my Buddhist practice with the Triratna Buddhist movement, and making the most of the rest of my life in worldly matters.

All other information about me can be found on Wikipedia (English und deutsch)