Lucy Kirkwood

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a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works.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.

'The window for change – real change I mean – will close. It's already closing. Very soon it will be shut, and we shan't be able to get it open again.' 1948, Shropshire: the winter is freezing, austerity is biting and Iris Elcock, GP, socialist and Labour Party councillor, is working tirelessly to implement Nye Bevan's National Health Service Act and its revolutionary promise of free healthcare for all. At home she is a mother, and wife to a fellow GP, an ex-Navy man scarred by the war. But a chance meeting with George Blythe, a local boy who has made it to Hollywood, turns her quiet, certain world upside down. A story of political and private passions, Lucy Kirkwood's play The Human Body was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2024, directed by Michael Longhurst and Ann Yee, and starring Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport. 'Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation' Independent

A slippery thriller for the stage, about love, power and belief. In a modern world where reality is whatever we imagine it to be, how do we know the stories we tell ourselves are true?

Rural Suffolk, 1759. As the country waits for Halley's Comet, Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder. When she claims to be pregnant, a jury of twelve matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she's telling the truth, or simply trying to escape the noose. With only midwife Lizzy Luke prepared to defend the girl, and a mob baying for blood outside, the matrons wrestle with their new authority, and the devil in their midst.

One life in the hands of 12 women. Rural Suffolk, 1759. As the country waits for Halley's comet, Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder. When she claims to be pregnant, a jury of 12 matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she's telling the truth, or simply trying to escape the noose. With only midwife Lizzy Luke prepared to defend the girl, and a mob baying for blood outside, the matrons wrestle with their new authority, and the devil in their midst. The Welkin premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2020, directed by James Macdonald and featuring Maxine Peake and Ria Zmitrowicz. Lucy Kirkwood's other plays include Mosquitoes, The Children, Chimerica (winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award, the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), NSFW and it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now.

A play about families and particle physics. Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, she is embarking on the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson particle. 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. Lucy Kirkwood's play Mosquitoes premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2017, in a production featuring Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams, and directed by Rufus Norris.

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). 'Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation' Independent

'Retired people are like nuclear power stations. They like to live by the sea.' Two ageing nuclear scientists in an isolated cottage on the coast, as the world around them crumbles. Then an old friend arrives with a frightening request. Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children premiered at the Royal Court, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 17 November 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald. The Children was named Best Play at the 2018 Writers' Guild Awards.

A powerful, provocative play about international relations and the shifting balance of power between East and West. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play (2014), the Evening Standard Best Play Award (2013), the Critics' Circle Best New Play Award (2014), and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. 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. Lucy Kirkwood's play Chimerica was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2013 before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End.

A sharp comedy about 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 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.] Lucy Kirkwood's play NSFW was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2012.

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:

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. Lucy Kirkwood's Beauty and the Beast was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in December 2010.

A collection of wide-ranging and ambitious short plays reflecting the complexities of women and political power in the United Kingdom. The four plays published here look back to the moments in history when women possessed - or achieved - power, and what they did with it. The Milliner and the Weaver by Marie Jones, about the Suffragette movement in Ireland, as the question of Home Rule divides the nation. The Lioness by Rebecca Lenkiewicz is about Queen Elizabeth I, the myth and the reality. Handbagged by Moira Buffini, about the working relationship between Mrs Thatcher and the Queen. Bloody Wimmin by Lucy Kirkwood, about the protests at Greenham Common, a political landmark in the fight for nuclear disarmament. The plays were first performed at the Tricycle Theatre, London, as part of the Women, Power and Politics season in June 2010. The other plays presented in the season are available in the companion volume, Women, Power and Politics: Now.

'I know exactly how much I am worth. I am worth one thousand euros because that is how much Babac paid for me. To put this in easy language, that is like two-and-a-half iPhones.' A luminous journey exploring the life of Dijana Polancec: professional romantic, eternal optimist and accidental prostitute. Lucy Kirkwood's it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now is a play about modern-day sex trafficking. It was commissioned by Clean Break and first performed by the company at the Arcola Theatre in London in October 2009. The play was the joint winner of the John Whiting Award in 2010.

In Lucy Kirkwood's version of Hedda Gabler, Ibsen's nineteenth-century heroine is relocated to London in 2008, to startling effect. Hedda, still mourning for the father she adored, returns from honeymoon with a husband she doesn't love, to a flat and a pregnancy she doesn't want. Trapped by her past and terrified of her future, bored by her life but too cowardly to walk away from it, she finds herself caught between three men. And in the end, something has to give. Lucy Kirkwood's play Hedda was first performed at the Gate Theatre, London, in August 2008.

Fast, wild and farcically funny, Lucy Kirkwood's first full-length play is a disturbing vision of a dystopian future. Sometime in the 21st century, England is dissolving into the sea. Amidst the chaos, one man clings to his traditional British values and his love of meat. For Londoner Saul Everard, his butchers shop is an empire that he will do anything to preserve, including moving it to Bradford. An outlaw Scottish artist swims Hadrian's Channel from Scotland to England and seeks refuge in Saul's shop. There's rioting on the streets and the police are onto him but Saul's meaty little realm may be the last place to seek sanctuary. Lucy Kirkwood's play Tinderbox was premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2008.