From Chimera to Reality: Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica or ‘What State Are We in?’

Abstract

Abstract Mark Ravenhill’s 2007 Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat is a relevant state of the nation(s) play drawing an acid portrait of Anglo-American nations and their self-congratulatory ‘freedom and democracy’ propaganda in Irak. Other committed voices have made themselves heard on the British stage in addressing worldwide political and ethical issues. This paper focuses on Lucy Kirkwood, a young British dramatist whose pungent style was revealed in Tinderbox (2008), a dystopian farce set in 21st century England. Today, Lucy Kirkwood (33) who sees herself as ‘a radical young dramatist,’ continues to explore the confused landscape of western democracy: she sketched the relations between the USA and China in Chimerica (2013), an epic drama which won her an Olivier Award for Best New Play. In the wake of Brexit and the Trump election, Lucy Kirkwood has recently announced that she would pursue her investigation of the leading nations’ policies: “The whole of democracy looks fragile and farcical. After writing about communist China in Chimerica, you suddenly look at western democracy and think: is this necessarily better? Maybe this is the endgame” (Lawson, “Chimerica”).This paper explores Kirkwood’s vitriolic portrait of today’s leading nations, and her questioning of universal concerns experienced on a personal level such as power and privacy, nationalism and identity, profit and subservience. I will examine her peculiar ability to reformulate a ‘state-of-the-nation’ format and associate innovation and convention in her treatment of subject matter, language, dramatic form and performance.