Writer: David Lan
Director: Stephen Daldry
The alleged removal of children from their family homes in Ukraine to Russia has been one of the most horrific features of the current war in Eastern Europe, and it gives topicality to The Land of the Living, David Lan’s new play, which tells of events during and after World War II.
In 1945, Ruth is a 20-year-old United Nations aid worker in a devastated German city. Thomas, a 10-year-old Polish boy, comes under her care. He is one of thousands of children who had been taken from their homes in German-occupied territories to be tested for “pure blood” and, if deemed suitable, to be re-homed with Nazi supporters. Ruth leads Thomas on a perilous journey across Europe, avoiding the grasp of the Soviets, and eventually to a new home in the United States. Thomas finds safety and prosperity, but he loses his sense of belonging, his language, his culture and his heritage. The play asks whether Ruth was right to consign Thomas to this fate rather than to help him find his own birth family.
Lan tells the story in flashback from the perspective of a reunion in 1990 between Ruth (Juliet Stevenson) and Thomas (Tom Wlaschiha). Events are acted out on Miriam Buether’s extraordinary set, which runs the entire length of the Dorfman Theatre’s auditorium. At one end there is a domestic living area and at the other, there is a grand library, the two separated by a polished wood walkway which appears to be mounted on a multitude of filing cabinets. It may not be entirely clear how any of this connects to the play, but Buether gives director Stephen Daldry what he needs most – the space to stage a production on an epic scale – albeit at the expense of this theatre’s most precious asset, its intimacy.
Daldry’s staging is, at many times, thrilling. The chaos of post-war Germany and the race across a hostile continent are realised vividly and imaginatively with a company of 15 adults and children. However, there are moments when it feels as if the production is at odds with the play, overwhelming it. Lan has realised that events of such magnitude can only be dramatised by condensing them into the lives of individuals, but Daldry chooses to paint the bigger picture. It is significant that the play’s most moving and memorable scenes come when fewer numbers occupy the stage. Specially, Stevenson and Wlaschiha give astonishingly powerful performances that shine through all the spectacle that surrounds them.
A fractured narrative structure does little to add clarity to the storytelling, and the production could be viewed as overblown, but The Land of the Living deals with issues of profound importance, both historically and still today.
Runs until 1 November 2025
