Lucy Kirkwood

A powerful, provocative play about international relations and the shifting balance of power between East and West. Tiananmen Square, 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe - a young American photojournalist - captures a piece of history. New York, 2012. Joe is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labor and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film. Who was he? What happened to him? And could he still be alive? A gripping political examination and an engaging personal drama, Chimerica examines the changing fortunes of two countries whose futures will shape the whole world.

Chimerica

A trenchant examination of justice and power from the award-winning writer of The Children.

The Welkin (Tcg Edition)

'Tinderbox', Lucy Kirkwood's debut play, premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in Spring 2008. From bare-bottom spanking to cannibalism, it is a surreal black comedy set in a future England that has been separated from Scotland by rising sea levels.

Tinderbox

When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper more than 20 years later, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film. Who was he? What happened to him? And could he still be alive?

Dennis Kelly

Mark Ravenhill

Across the UK thousands of people are involved in protests and debates, sparked into action by the largest cuts to publicspending since WWII – cuts which are the turning point of a generation, undermining the welfare state, higher education and the arts in one fell swoop. Theatre Uncut is a national theatre event in response to these cuts, bringing together some of the UK’s leading dramatists. Drama groups, universities, youth clubs and theatre companies nationwide joined the event, staging their own versions of the shorts in a national theatrical uprising. Now published in this new collection, Theatre Uncut contains these short plays, addressing audiences who want to think about what the budget cuts really mean, and who they are really hitting. A debate is underway. Protest might begin, minds might be changed, views challenged, ideas formed. Theatre Uncut is a response to a situation that we cannot control, and over which we had no say. Click below to hear an interview with Libby Brodie and Hannah Price of Theatre Uncut:

A Response to the Countrywide Spending Cuts

Theatre Uncut

Ed Hime

Since her debut in 2008, Lucy Kirkwood has firmly established herself as a leading playwright of her generation, the writer of a series of savagely funny, highly intelligent and beautifully observed plays that tackle the pressing issues of our times. This collection, with an introduction by the author, brings together five of her plays.

Small Hours

Lucy Kirkwood's 'NSFW' is a comedy satirising media attitudes to sexuality and personal privacy. It was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 25 October 2012.

NSFW

Lucy Kirkwood's sharp comedy looks at power games and privacy in the media and beyond. Carrie's getting them out for the lads, Charlotte's just grateful to have a job, Sam's being asked to sell more than his body, and Aidan's trying to keep his magazine from going under. Set in the cut-throat media world, Lucy Kirkwood's timely new comedy exposes power games and privacy in the age of Photoshop. [NSFW = Not Safe For Work, online material which the viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work.] NSFW was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2012.

A black comedy: from bare bottom spanking to cannibalism, scarcely a bad taste stone left unturned.

Alice Birch

Winsome Pinnock

Sabrina Mahfouz

Bryony Lavery

Katherine Chandler

Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Suhayla El-Bushra

Sarah Daniels

Deborah Bruce

Natasha Marshall

Chinoyerem Odimba

Rena Owen

Rebecca Prichard

Chloe Moss

Ursula Rani Sarma

Shelley Silas

Sandrine Uwayo

Anna Reynolds

Somalia Seaton

Naomi Wallace

Jacqueline Holborough

Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm

Daisy King

Vivienne Franzmann

Lin Coghlan

Annie Caulfield

Raina Dunne

Danni Brown

Laura Lomas

Theresa Ikoko

Katie Hims

Sonya Hale

Linda Brogan

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women's lives through theatre. Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon. Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women's theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Celebrating 40 Years of Clean Break Theatre Company

Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women

Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron particle collider starts up in 2008, she is on the brink of the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson. Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time googling. When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos.

Mosquitoes

It Felt Empty when the Heart Went at First But it is Alright Now

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot De Villeneuve

Lucy Kirkwood's delightful version of the classic fairytale, first seen in a production devised and directed by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre for Christmas 2010. ‘I expect you have been told fairytales before. But you have never really heard a fairytale until you have heard it told by a real fairy.’ The theft of a single rose has monstrous consequences for Beauty and her father. Because this is no ordinary rose...and this is no ordinary fairytale. Narrated by a pair of mischievous fairies, a very helpful Rabbit, and a Thoughtsnatcher machine, this timeless story is sure to surprise, delight and enchant. A wild and twisted tale, full of exciting and intriguing challenges for drama groups wishing to stage their own production.

Beauty and the Beast

Two retired nuclear scientists reside in an isolated cottage by the sea as the world around them crumbles. Together they are going to live forever on yogurt and yoga, until an old friend arrives with a frightening request.

Lucy Kirkwood

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