Land Without Words

Tensta Konsthall presents the Swedish premiere and the first translation into Swedish of Land utan ord (Land Without Words) by the acclaimed German playwright Dea Loher. Performed by Lena Carlsson, regissör Jenny Nörbeck

17th November - December

“Land utan ord” (Land Without Words) is a monologue that describes a meeting between the performing artist and the city of Kabul in Afghanistan and how this encounter affected her work. What can we really describe? What is suffering, provocation, chance? Existential questions on the role of an artist and on the human condition itself are seen through a woman's experience of meeting a foreign culture, and a place where the conditions for life and art are very different. What can you describe and what are the limits of what one can stand?

The text was written after the author held a literary seminar in Kabul and is a work of poetic realism, drawing on interviews with the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, as well as Loher's own her experiences in the city.

Dea Loher was born in 1964 in Traunstein, Bavaria. She studied German and Philosophy in Munich, and studied playwriting at the Hochschule der Künste. Her work has been shown widely in Europe and elsewhere including the theater festival in São Paulo, Porto Alegre and in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 as well as Swedish version of her play Oskuld at Riksteatern in 2010. She has won many prizes including the prestigious Mülheim Dramatists’ Award for her play “The Final Fire” in 2008.

Lena Carlsson is a swedish actress who has become well known in both theatre and films over many years. Her theatre credits include a number of productions at for example Roma Teatern, Stadsteatern, Elverket and right now One for the Road at Teater Västernorrland. On film she is currently appearing in Farsan.

Jenny Nörbeck is a well known swedish director who lives and works in Berlin. She has, amongst many other things, worked at Volksbühne in Berlin, at Hamburg Spielhaus and at Teater Tribunalen in Stockholm.