Chimerica: West End Edition

Winner, 2014 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Winner, 2014 Olivier Award for Best New Play
Winner, 2013 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play
Winner, 2014 Critics' Circle Best New Play Award

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 labour 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 premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End.

Lucy Kirkwood’s first play Tinderbox premiered at the Bush Theatre in 2008. She has written plays for pioneering theatre companies Clean Break and Headlong, and venues including the Bush Theatre, Royal Court, Gate Theatre and National Theatre. Her play NSFW was nominated for a Whatsonstage.com Award for Best New Comedy.