The Land of the Living a new play by David Lan at the National Theatre asks ‘was what I did “wrong”?’
Set in Germany, 1945, thousands of children, stolen by the Nazis from Eastern Europe during WWII are under the care of UN relief worker Ruth, working to try to reunite them with their families.
But when she suspects young Thomas isn’t who his family say he is, Ruth steals him away in the hope of finding his real parents.
Forty five years later, Thomas visits Ruth in London. As they untangle the past, Ruth sees how the choices she made have shaped his life and her decisions are called powerfully into question.
The characters in the play are invented but the historical circumstances are accurate. The play was informed by a series of in-depth interviews with the distinguished journalist and historian Gitta Sereny, who worked for UNRRA in southern Germany immediately after the end of the war and was the author of many books on the period.
Immersed in the shapeshifting nature of memory and morality, Stephen Daldry directs this in-your-face play which is a hard watch about child abuse, questioning whether people not much older than the children they were ‘rescuing’ should have been responsible for such life changing circumstances.
Star of stage and screen, Juliet Stevenson plays Ruth, the young UN worker who makes a decision that will change a child’s life for ever. Ruth gives a pain-stricken character performance, grappling between hindsight and morally made decisions decades before.
Artie Wilkinson-Hunt plays Young Thomas and does a wonderful job for someone so young. I don’t know his background but to be able to speak different languages is commendable and thankfully, every time he had to ‘smash something up’ on stage, it was done with precision (as could have easily injured someone in the audience if not done so).
As Older Thomas, Tom Wlaschiha is a lovely piano player and actor, who has come searching for answers from his childhood.
The Land Of The Living is long at almost three hours (despite the programme saying it is quite a bit shorter) and it could be slimmed down. Saying that though, it didn’t drag and was well paced in tone to keep the audience focused.
As with any National Theatre production, you expect a high quality and this delivers on that expectation. The story is beautifully woven together between two very different time periods, with some wonderful moments of symbolism to depict the children.
The Land Of The Living is an uncomfortable reminder that the world today is sadly not much different to how it was seventy-five years ago. People, from all over the world, through no fault of their own, are crying out for help from those more fortunate than others. Does humanity care more, or less, about these people now than they did then? Sadly, I think things could be getting worse.
★★★★★
West End Wilma
The Land Of The Living plays at the National Theatre until 1 November 2025
What theatre shows are playing in London right now?
What days do London theatre shows have matinee performances?
What London theatre shows have upcoming accessible performances?
