Chimerica transfers from Almeida to Harold Pinter

The Headlong production of Chimerica, which ends its 6-week run at the Off West End venue Almeida Theatre, on 29 June 2013, will transfer to the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre on 8 Aug 2013, booking to 19 Oct 2013.

Directed by Lyndsey Turner, the play received terrific notices from the popular press: Michael Billington for Guardian says "Gloriously rich, mind-expanding". Charles Spencer for Telegraph says "Lucy Kirkwood's play has serious themes, not least the vexed relationship between China, with its awesome economic power, and the West, desperate to muscle in on the financial action, but it is also a cracking thriller and a newspaper drama that can stand comparison with that masterpiece of the genre, The Front Page." Henry Hitchens for Evening Standard says "Lucy Kirkwood's new play is both fluent and seductive".

The cast includes Claudie Blakley (Tessa) , Stephen Campbell Moore (Joe), Benedict Wong (Zhang Lin), Vera Chok, Karl Collins, Trevor Cooper, Nancy Crane, Sean Gilder, Sarah Lam and Andrew Leung all of whom will reprise their roles in the West End.

It is designed by Es Devlin , lighting by Tim Lutkin, costumes by Christina Cunningham, sound by Carolyn Downing. Produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions, Bob Bartner/Norman Tulchin and Jean Doumanian.

Tiananmen Square, 1989. As tanks roll through Beijing and soldiers hammer on his hotel door, Joe – a young American photojournalist – captures a piece of history. In New York, 2012 Joe is covering a presidential election, marred by debate over cheap labour and the outsourcing of American jobs to Chinese factories. When a cryptic message is left in a Beijing newspaper, Joe is driven to discover the truth behind the unknown hero he captured on film. Who was he? What happened to him? And could he still be alive?

- by Darren Dalglish