LAND without WORDS

By Jacqueline Sharp

LAND without WORDS by Dea Loher, Translated by David Tushingham

UK PREMIERE

5^th – 30^th August 2009

Caves 2 – 12.20pm (50 mins)

 

I was drawn to see Land Without Words, by Dea Loher, Award winning writer, and even more intrigued by the quote from Land without Words, , “war doesn’t happen in a picture what you experience that’s what counts there’s nothing else to understand”.

For me, Land without Words, I could relate to each individual’s personal experiences of how they feel about the war in Afghanistan.  "No matter what side of the war one comes from, there are the same feelings of anger, frustration, fear, trauma, hopelessness, worthlessness, pointlessness, empathy, sympathy, and so the list goes on”.

The director Lydia Ziemke clearly understood the writer’s feelings.Land without Words was a masterpiece of work, expressed extremely well through the eyes of a fictional character, a painter/sculptor performed by actress Lucy Ellinson in this one woman show.

I enjoyed watching the journey, where the painter/sculptor, seeks to find a deeper meaning to life, purpose of life, value and validity of such, all through the eyes of an artist. Lucy Ellinson is an extremely gifted actress. Credit must be given to Dea Loher, who already has an outstanding list of Awards; Bertolt Brecht-Literature Prize 2006; Heiner-Muller-Professorship 2009 Berlin Award of Literature

Lydia Ziemke has pulled it off with Land without Words! She is likely to become famous as she has great insight and leadership as a director.  She has previously worked as assistant director at the Royal Court Theatre in London, where she also helped to run a small West End Theatre.

Her team have pulled off one of the most outstanding pieces of performance theatre at this year at Edinburgh Fringe. This awesome play is not to be missed, Land without Words deserves an Edinburgh Fringe 2009 Award!