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A timely play based on the true story of an imprisoned Nobel Laureate.
On 3 April 2011, as he was boarding a flight to Taipei, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Airport. Advised merely that his travel “could damage state security”, he was escorted to a van by officials, after which he disappeared for eighty-one days. On his release, the government claimed that his imprisonment related to tax evasion.
Howard Brenton's play is based on Ai Weiwei's account in Barnaby Martin's book Hanging Man, in which he told the story of that imprisonment - by turns surreal, hilarious, and terrifying. A portrait of the artist in extreme conditions, it is also an affirmation of the centrality of art and freedom of speech in civilized society.
"A very good play - moving, scary, gripping, inventive and at times laugh-out-loud funny." - Telegraph
"Tremendously powerful." - Financial Times
"A piece of theatre that is both a public service and an absorbing, imaginative response." - Whatsonstage.com
"Intense and claustrophic... this play shows that art - and artists - still matter." - Evening Standard
Howard Brenton is a prolific playwright whose plays have been staged at the Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre, RSC and Shakespeare's Globe among others. Other writing work includes collaborations with David Hare and thirteen episodes of the BBC1 drama series Spooks.
Howard Brenton, FRSL, is a renowned playwright and author. His many plays include The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, adapted from the novel by Robert Tressell (Liverpool Everyman and Chichester Festival Theatre, 2010); Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare’s Globe, 2010 and 2011); 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); Drawing the Line (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); Doctor Scroggy's War (Shakespeare's Globe, 2014); Lawrence After Arabia (Hampstead Theatre, 2016); The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre, 2017); The Shadow Factory (NST City, Southampton, 2018); Jude (Hampstead Theatre, 2019); Cancelling Socrates (Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2022) and Churchill in Moscow (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, 2025).
He has collaborated severeal times with other writers (e.g., Moscow Gold with Tariq Ali, RSC, 1990), and has adapted various classics, particularly Strindberg's Dances of Death (Gate Theatre, 2013), Miss Julie (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2017), and Creditors (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, and Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 2019). He has also writtne for the screen, most notably on the BBC1 drama series Spooks (2001–05; BAFTA Best Drama Series, 2003).