The play enjoyed its premiere showings in Bonn in late November 2012, and it had its Polish premiere at Warsaw’s Powszechny Theatre on the 24th of January, 2013. The play, directed by Frank Heuel, is based on four texts. Two of them were written by Lothar Kittstein, a German playwright, and two others by young Polish author Julia Holewińska. In an interview for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, Holewińska explained:
We were planning to write a play about the contemporary relations between Poles and Germans, but as we began the work it turned out that the historic issues of war, exiles and compensations couldn’t be avoided. And we both know the war through the stories of other people. In my home it had a strong presence, as my grandmother had been resettled from the East of Poland. We were more captivated by the way these events influence our lives now, than the actual historic events.
The co-production of the Teatr Powszechny and the Fringe Ensemble from Bonn takes up the controversial issue with a bravery that may surprise many, as it is taken from the perspective of the young generation. The production may help breaks taboos about the no-man’s land of its title, on both sides of the Polish-German border. The piece takes up themes seen in recent films such as Rose and Aftermath, which bravely avoid didactics and oversimplification. In a surprisingly fresh, contemporary form, No Man's Land shows how theatre can and ought to lend its voice about significant contemporary issues.
Part of the play touches on painful history in Poland’s Mazury region. For years after the Second World War, Polish inhabitants who had moved to the area didn’t fix anything in their new homes, fearing the return of the previous owners. The place they found themselves, where they slowly planted roots, was in fact a land with no owner, a no man’s land. The region remains suspended between Poles and Germans, in spite of elapsed decades and integration within the European Union. It is a land of forgotten fates and unforgiven wounds that persist in the consciousness of the generations that have followed.
Following the 2013 German premiere of the performance in Bonn, the Polish actress in the play, Katarzyna Maria Zielińska, revealed how she had feared the reaction of the Bonn public:
I stand on the stage and sing "Ain't no German going to spit in our face". In another scene two protagonists, a Polish-German couple, talk to each other through a sex-chat. But in fact the play was very well received and the audience is interested in taking part in a dialogue.
The cast of No Man's Land features Polish and German actors: Katarzyna Maria Zielińska, Laila Nielsen, Maciej Brzoska, David Fischer and Harald Redmer.
No Man's Land is performed in Bonn at the Theater im Ballsaal between from the 9th and 13th of April, and at the Munster Theater im Pumpenhaus from the 19th until the 21st of April, 2013.
Editor: SRS
Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, press release