In 2005 Lucy Kirkwood wrote and starred in her first play, Grady Hot Potato, at the Bedlam Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was also selected for the National Student Drama Festival. The following year she took two productions of her second play, Geronimo to the Edinburgh Fringe, under the title The Umbilical Project. The two plays, Cut and Uncut, were an experiment in cutting the cord between writer and production. Uncut was directed by Lucy herself and Cut by a completely separate company under the direction of Matt Addicott. No contact was made between the two companies during the rehearsal period, prompting the tag line "Two casts, two crews, two directors, two venues, one new play... no communication" Her third play Guns or Butter, about soldiers being overcome by the horror of war, was written for the Terror 2007 Festival at the Union Theatre, London. Tinderbox, a dark comedy set in a fictional 21st Century England, premiered at the Bush Theatre in 2008. It starred Jamie Foreman and Sheridan Smith. In the same year she also contributed to the Bush's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. Her version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, entitled Hedda, premiered at London's Gate Theatre in 2008 to favorable reviews. Kirkwood's promenade play about sex trafficking, It Felt Empty When The Heart Went At First But It Is Alright Now, was produced by Clean Break Theatre at the Arcola theatre. Her short horror piece Psychogeography premiered at the Bush in 2008 and was revived at Southwark Playhouse. She is under commission to the Manhattan Theatre Club to write a science play. Her play NSFW premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, starring Janie Dee and Julian Barrett and directed by Simon Godwin, in October 2012.