Review: The Land We Shared, Arts Depot

Before the show begins, a drum kit and a double bass wait on a dark stage amid a gentle, languid soundscape, an occasional whistle piercing the drifting smoke. Ruslana Khazipova is already there, draped silently across the double bass, and she remains on stage throughout. Then Little L (Kristen Winters) emerges grinning from a mound of fabric on the floor, full of seemingly boundless energy. She announces that she has found her grandmother’s bag of clothes, containing both the outfit she wishes to be buried in and directions to where she wants to be buried. Unfortunately, Grandmother was buried some years previously in the wrong place and in different clothes…

The Land We Share is a tale of multigenerational ties and set in 1980s communist Romania, the last of the Eastern Bloc regimes to fall in the revolutions of 1989. It opens with Little L as a small child living with her mother and grandmother in Bucharest in the run-up to the execution of President Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, in December 1989. Rationed light and heat, little hot water and queuing for hours in the dark for food were the norm, and the humble cabbage, often the only food available, becomes a recurring motif. 

Yet through the voice of Little L, who measures her age only against her beloved, ever-resourceful grandmother, the food she is served and the life she leads become exciting treasures. As she parrots communist propaganda as positive affirmations, the audience grasps both the bleakness of their living conditions and the joy and security her grandmother provides.

The second half follows Little L’s move to Luxembourg with her mother after the fall of the regime, where she marvels at the endless abundance of food. Decades later, her father (Ovidiu Mihăiţă) reappears claiming parental rights, and there is still the small matter of finding her grandmother’s grave, reburying her and swapping her burial clothes.

What a wonderful, heart-warming production this is. The juxtaposition of humour and the surreal softens the harsh reality of life under communism and their isolation from less draconian regimes. Several live musical interludes add variety, including a heated duel between Little L and her father played out on the drums. While it is a political piece revealing how Romania’s communist dictatorship shaped everyday life, it is also resolutely human, telling its story through the lens of a separated family. Smart dialogue and energetic, uplifting performances convey the joy of cross-generational families, while the frustration of struggling to understand a long-lost relative lands with nuanced impact. Integral to everything is the energy of the music, and in particular Ukrainian musician Khazipova’s contribution in that regard. Winters is especially accomplished as Little L, seemingly ageing decades before our eyes before reverting to a small child again.

Writer Larisa Faber describes life under communism as surreal, which explains the course the play takes, particularly at the end, when Little L makes a surreal but appropriate costume change. It is an impactful and very funny moment, heightened by Little L turning to the audience and repeating a line from the beginning: “An old communist joke my grandmother used to tell goes like this: the future is always certain; it’s the past that’s uncertain.”

And yet it is not laughter that accompanies the rapturous ovation from those that stand at the end. Many in the audience are overcome with emotion as the three actors come together centre stage in traditional dress, wearing huge smiles, celebrating traditional Romanian culture.

Written and Directed by Larisa Faber
Dramaturg by Shamira Turner
Stage Design by Marco Godinho
Costume Design by Sarah Munro
Composed & Sound Design by Alexei Țurcan
U.K. Producer: Mia Lake
Lighting Design by Fränz Meyers
Stage Manager: Dragoş Mărgineanu
Produced by Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

The Land We Shared has completed its current run at The Arts Depot