it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (NHB Modern Plays)

By Lucy Kirkwood

A luminous journey exploring the life of Dijana Polancec: professional romantic, eternal optimist and accidental prostitute. Winner of the John Whiting Award, 2010

Produced by acclaimed theatre company Clean Break. it felt empty premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London in October 2009.

'unflinching... theatre that provokes in the best way, without lurid melodrama or sentimentality, but with wit and tenderness... demands that we watch and listen' The Times

'superb... deeply painful and profoundly disturbing' The Stage

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Apr 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780013121

Lucy Kirkwood

Lucy Kirkwood is a British playwright and screenwriter whose plays include: The Human Body (Donmar Warehouse, London, 2024); Rapture (promoted as That Is Not Who I Am, Royal Court Theatre, London, 2022); The Welkin (National Theatre, London 2020); Mosquitoes (National Theatre, 2017); The Children (Royal Court Theatre, 2016); Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and West End, 2013; winner of the 2014 Olivier Award for Best New Play, the 2013 Evening Standard Best Play Award, the 2014 Critics’ Circle Best New Play Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Award); NSFW (Royal Court, 2012); small hours (co-written with Ed Hime; Hampstead Theatre, 2011); Beauty and the Beast (with Katie Mitchell; National Theatre, 2010); Bloody Wimmin, as part of Women, Power and Politics (Tricycle Theatre, 2010); it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Clean Break and Arcola Theatre, 2009; winner of the 2012 John Whiting Award); Hedda (Gate Theatre, London, 2008); and Tinderbox (Bush Theatre, 2008). She won the inaugural Berwin Lee UK Playwrights Award in 2013.