Today’s Flip the Script Friday comes from my play collection. Here’s a contemporary play about a controversial and misunderstood real figure – the late Ai Weiwei of China. Accordingly, this play is called #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, by Howard Brenton.
Basics
#aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei by Howard Brenton, based on Ai Weiwei’s account in “The Hanging Man” by Barnaby Martin, premiered at London’s Hampstead Theatre on 11 April 2013.
Characters
- Ai Weiwei
- Airport Official
- First Police Guard/First Army Guard
- Second Police Guard/Second Army Guard
- “Minder”, an interrogator
- “Professor”, an interrogator
- “Sportsman”, an interrogator
- Thin Young Man, a recorder
- A and B, high officials in Zhongnanhai
- Other policemen and security men
Setting/Plot
2011, Beijing Airport. Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist, is about to fly to Taipei, when he is detained by officials for questioning, and subsequently held captive for 81 days.
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