Originally performed and live streamed in 2013, this unique recording of #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei returned as part of the Hampstead Theatre At Home series. Thank you to the whole company for kindly allowing us to share this incredible play again. #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei was available to watch on demand from Monday 27 April until Sunday 3 May. Find out more.

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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 81 days. On his release, the government claimed that his imprisonment related to tax evasion.

Howard Brenton’s play is based on conversations with Ai 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 of freedom of speech in civilised society.

Directed by James Macdonald (who also directed Hampstead Theatre At Home production Wild) and starring Benedict Wong as Ai Weiwei (Doctor Strange, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Black Mirror, The Martian).  

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