Talking About The Fire at Departure Lounge July 2024. Design by Eleanor Field. Photography by Chris Webb
Talking About The Fire at Departure Lounge July 2024. Design by Eleanor Field. Photography by Chris Webb

The Program on Science and Global Security, part of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, is hosting a special one-time performance at Princeton University of Talking About the Fire on October 11, 2024. This is part of an event series marking 50 years of the Program.

In "Talking About the Fire" award-winning UK playwright Chris Thorpe, dubbed “one of the UK’s most thoughtful theatre-makers, tackling subjects and issues that others shy away,” engages audiences in urgent conversations about nuclear weapons today, their dangers, and disarmament. 

Described by one reviewer as a “genre-defining piece of activist theatre” Talking about the Fire draws on several years of research by Thorpe with UN diplomats, officials from nuclear weapons states, and arms control and disarmament experts and activists. It also speaks to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Agreed in 2017, it now has 94 signatory states. The treaty focuses on the humanitarian impact of the weapons and gives new agency to eliminate nuclear weapons to the states, and people, who do not possess them. 

Talking about the Fire is a production of China Plate and Staatstheater Mainz. Created by Chris Thorpe and Claire O’Reilly (Abbey Theatre), and developed with Rachel Chavkin, it is directed by Claire O’Reilly. The design is by Eleanor Field and production management by Rob Athorn. It was selected as one of the top 10 best theatre show openings in London in December 2023 for performances that took place at The Royal Court Theatre.

When: Friday, October 11, 2024, 6:00–7:30PM

Where: Maeder Hall, Andlinger Center

Please, register for the event here.