Former Young Vic boss David Lan is arguably the most important British artistic director of the twenty-first century, with his embrace of avant-garde and European directors arguably responsible for the leftwards drift of the West End and beyond in recent years. He’s been involved in various projects since – notably producing the travelling refugee advocacy artwork-slash-festival The Walk – but The Land of the Living marks his first major British production since leaving the Vic. He returns in playwright guise with a story about Ruth a UN aid worker who adopts Thomas, an Eastern European child who was abducted by the Nazis during the Second World War. Years later, Thomas confronts Ruth about the decisions she made as a young woman that changed his life.
Juliet Stevenson will star as Ruth and German actor Tom Wlaschiha as Thomas. In a rather luxury production, Stephen Daldry will direct.
