Three Kingdoms is a blackly entertaining & unsettling detective story cum parable about the devil in us all, international human trafficking & the changing state of Europe. As the severed human head of an Estonian woman is found in a river in Hammersmith, two British detectives set off in search of her origins in Europe & how she came to be found dead. Accompanied by a mephistophelian German detective acting as their guide, they gradually sink deeper & deeper into the world of prostitution & international human trafficking. Fighting to cross international borders & language barriers, they enter a nightmarish world that will change one of them forever. Three Kingdoms tells the stories of trafficked women, the gangs & the police forces across Europe that attempt to control them. This dark new thriller by Simon Stephens, set across three countries, explores an international business where the goods are not products, but people. Questioning & undermining not just tenets about the nature of Europe with its old & new borders, Three Kingdoms also explodes moral certainties. With good & evil presented not as polarised forces but as disturbingly shifting, overlapping & contradictory, the play provocatively unbalances convictions of truth, ethical codes, violence & justice. This edition also
Includes:: a preface with contributions from playwright Simon Stephens, German director Sebastian Nuebling & Estonian dramaturg Eero Epner, discussing this uniquely collaborative & tri-lingual project.