Works

No man’s land

In the hall of a train station, twenty spectators wait for twenty former refugees. The spectator follows one of the migrants during a walk through the city. On their headphones they listen to different scenarios of their silent guide’s potential life. The aim isn’t to reveal the identity of the guide, but to disrupt the viewer’s gaze. The text speculates on the life of the migrant. And with this, the work questions the idea of authenticity in the lives of refugees: why share the truth when lies can garner you a better life?

In the hall of a train station, twenty spectators wait for twenty former refugees. The spectator follows one of the migrants during a walk through the city. On their headphones they listen to different scenarios of their silent guide’s potential life. The aim isn’t to reveal the identity of the guide, but to disrupt the viewer’s gaze. The text speculates on the life of the migrant. And with this, the work questions the idea of authenticity in the lives of refugees: why share the truth when lies can garner you a better life?

Video

No man's land (2008)

Press

"My guide changed from an unknown passer-by into a person I wanted to get to know. (…) Verhoeven creates people from those who would otherwise remain extras in the Achtuurjournaal. (Eight o’clock news). The way in which he does that is confronting, intimate and poetic."

‘Intieme tocht als poëtisch theater’ ('Intimate journey as poetic theatre'), Joukje Akveld for Parool (29-09-2012)read the review (in Dutch)

"Niemandsland is exciting, moving and exceptional theatre, from the overwhelming beginning in a station hall in Utrecht, where time seems to stand still, to the poetic finale. And furthermore, it is important in these times of blunt polarisation."

‘Zijn naam is Reza’ ('His name is Reza'), Robbert van Heuven in Trouw (05-06-2008)read the review (in Dutch)

"Niemandsland is (...) touchingly intimate."

'Ontroerend intiem' (Touchingly intimate), Marijn van der Jagt in Vrij Nederland (26-06-2008)read the review (in Dutch)

"What is theatre? This is what you wonder as you raise a flag of Rwanda. Or on the following night, when you follow in the footsteps of Dourand from Afghanistan through the streets of Athens. ‘No man’s land’ makes you wonder if you have become a spectator in the life of ‘others’, or for a moment the protagonist of their lives."

Stella Harami for Eleytheros Typos (03-05-2014)read the review (in Greek)

"It is not the form - if we can speak about ‘No man’s land’ with such terminology – but an incredible text and dramaturgy, created from interviews with immigrant participants, that achieves to be quiet and simple, and at the same time to pass like a blade through my mind and soul."

E. Marinou for Η ΕΦΗΜΕΡΙΔΑ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝΤΑΚΤΩΝ (05-05-2014)read the review (in Greek)

Background and public reception

No man’s land in publications

Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink about Dries Verhoeven in ‘Nomadic Theatre, Mobilizing Theatere and Practice on the European Stage’.
a link to this publication

In the Bloomsbury publication ‘Thinking through theatre and performance’ Maaike Bleeker writes about ‘No man’s land’.
a link to this publication

VSCD jury report

In 2008 Verhoeven received the VSCD Mimeprijs for No man’s land and You are here.

read the report (in Dutch)

No man’s land in Athens

During the Athens’ edition (2014) of No man’s land the following registration was made.

watch the registration

5 years of No man’s land

In an analysis for Theatermaker, ‘Vijf jaar dwalen door Niemandsland’ (Wandering through No man’s land for five years), Robbert van Heuven poses the question about what a foreign tour lasting years does to a performance.

read the article (in Dutch)

Credits

direction, text Dries Verhoeven

local direction Marjolein Frijling (2013 and 2014)

direction assistant Hannah van Wieringen (2008), Bart van de Woestijne (2013 and 2014)

dramaturgy Judith Blankenberg (2008)

sound design Arnoud Traa

technicians Kas van Huisstede (2012), Roel Evenhuis (2014)

photography Stavros Petropoulos and Maarten van Haaff

voices Malou Gorter (2008), Bart Klever, Ria Marks (2013), Adam Fields (2013) in collaboration with 20 guides

co-commissioned by Huis and Festival a/d Werf (2008), Theaterformen (2009), VEO (2010), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (2009), Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam/Frascati (2012), Call of the Mall (2013), Münchner Kammerspiele (2014) and Onassis Cultural Center (2014)

inspired by ‘Please don’t leave me’ by Roos van Geffen