Lucy Kirkwood Plays: One (NHB Modern Plays)

Lucy Kirkwood

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781780018423
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro britannico

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, starting with the wild and riotously funny farce, Tinderbox (Bush Theatre, 2008), a disturbing vision of a dystopian future where England is dissolving into the sea, realised with 'off-kilter imaginative flair' ( The Times ).

Written for Clean Break theatre company, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Arcola Theatre, 2009; winner of the John Whiting Award) is a devastating report from the hidden world of Eastern European women trafficked to London to work in the sex industry.

The previously unpublished small hours (Hampstead Theatre, 2011), a collaboration with Ed Hime, directed by Katie Mitchell, is an intimate dissection of the claustrophobic world of a new mother struggling to cope on her own.

The sharply satirical NSFW (Royal Court, 2012) is a 'richly absorbing and inventive' ( Telegraph ) look at power games, privacy and gender politics in the media.

The volume concludes with Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and West End, 2013), a gripping and provocative examination of the shifting balance of power between East and West. Winner of multiple awards, including the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chimerica is 'gloriously rich and mind-expanding' ( Guardian ), and a 'tremendously bold piece of writing' ( Evening Standard ).

CHIMERICA

Chimerica was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 20 May 2013 and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, on 6 August 2013. The cast was as follows:

TESSA KENDRICK	Claudie Blakley
JOE SCHOFIELD	Stephen Campbell Moore
LIULI/JENNIFER	Elizabeth Chan
MICHELLE/MARY CHANG/	Vera Chok
DENG
DAVID BARKER/PETER ROURKE/	Karl Collins
PAUL KRAMER/OFFICER HYTE
FRANK HADLEY/HERB/	Trevor Cooper
DRUG DEALER
BARB/DOREEN/MARIA DUBIECKI/	Nancy Crane
KATE/JUDY
MEL STANWYCK	Sean Gilder
FENG MEIHUI/MING XIAOLI	Sarah Lam
YOUNG ZHANG LIN/BENNY	Andrew Leung
ZHANG WEI/WANG PENGSI	David K.S. Tse
ZHANG LIN	Benedict Wong

Other parts were played by the company

Director	Lyndsey Turner
Set Design	Es Devlin
Lighting	Tim Lutkin
Sound	Carolyn Downing
Video	Finn Ross
Costume Design	Christina Cunningham
Movement Director	Georgina Lamb
Casting	Julia Horan CDG
Associate Director	James Yeatman
Assistant Director	Ng Choon Ping
Dialect Coach	Michaela Kennen
Mandarin Coach	Bobby Xinyue
Fight Director	Bret Yount

From 2nd September 2013, the following cast changes took place: Wendy Kweh replaced Vera Chok, Liz Sutherland replaced Sarah Lam.

Author’s Note

It is a fact there was a Tank Man. It is a fact that photographs were taken of him. Beyond that, everything that transpires in the play is an imaginative leap.

This is especially the case with the journalist at the centre of the story, who is not based in any way upon a real person, alive or dead. Nor is he an amalgam of many of them. Joe is purely a fictional construct.

One of the reasons I felt able to take this liberty was that the image of the Tank Man we are familiar with in fact exists in a number of forms in common currency. There are at least six recognised versions, the play takes place in an imagined universe in which there are seven. In reality, Jeff Widener’s is the most famous, and I’m very grateful to him for allowing us to use his version in the publicity for the play. Versions of the shot were also taken by Stuart Franklin, Charlie Cole, Arthur Tsang Hin Wah and Terril Jones. Again, Joe is not a cipher for any of these men.

The sources the play draws on are too vast to list here, but special mention must be made of both Don McCullin’s book Unreasonable Behaviour, and When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques, works I found myself returning to again and again over the years, along with two of Susan Sontag’s works, On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others,and the PBS documentary on the Tank Man. Niall Ferguson coined the term ‘Chimerica’, I read it in his book The Ascent of Money. In writing Ming Xiaoli I found Anchee Min’s recollections in both the Taschen book of Chinese Propaganda posters and her own book, Red Azalea, very useful.

The play took six years to write, and accrued debts to many people in that time. I would like to thank:

Jack Bradley for commissioning me to write the play, and both he and Dawn Walton for their guidance and support in its early incarnations. Ben Power for rescuing the play when it became homeless, and for his dramaturgy and encouragement. Rupert Goold and Robert Icke whose long-term faith in the play is the reason it made it to the stage. Michael Attenborough and Lucy Morrison for embracing the play with such passion, giving it a home at the Almeida, and moving heaven and earth to ensure it had the best possible production. Es Devlin and Chiara Stephenson, whose wonderful designs greatly influenced the ideas and rhythms of the final drafts. Robin Pharaoh, whose crash course in doing business in China was invaluable. Choon Ping and Bobby Xinyue, for their insights into Chinese language and culture, and their work on the Mandarin translations. Stu...