Shipping Weight: 0.3 kg

On July 1, 1916, the best and the brightest of a generation of Newfoundland men were virtually wiped out. From every bay and cove and town, from fishing stage to merchant's home, they marched off to the Great War, proud members of their very own Newfoundland Regiment, never suspecting what one terrible morning of treachery would bring. The Battle of Beaumont Hamel is considered the greatest tragedy in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history. 

Beyond the trenches were lovers and mothers and others who held them dear. The soldiers were part of the immeasurable turmoil of war, yet as they travelled to dangerous and distant lands they were never without the spirit and humour they brought from their homeland. 

Adapted for stage from the novel of the same name.

 

CLARKE: He’ll have us string ourselves up on that wire, I suppose!

HAYWARD: The Colonel’s not the one making the decisions.

CLARKE: He damn well has to carry them out.

HAYWARD: He could be in the dark as much as we are.

CLARKE: Whatever he does know, he’s keeping to himself. We’re only the ones who’ve got to “rout the Hun,” remember.

HAYWARD: And what bloody difference does it all make? Tell me that.

CLARKE: Not a damn bit. That’s it, don’t you see! We’re in it now, and we do what we have to do. We have a meal, we wash up, we go to war.

“This past summer in Trinity, among those who had come to No Man’s Land was a very, very old man. At the end, he stood up and he said, ‘I knew these men. I knew them.’ It was, in its simplicity, the most powerful statement that one could ever hear about the play.”
     Donna Butt

“Kevin Major is among the best Canadian writers of his generation. He has established himself as a figure of singular importance in our literature.”
     John Moss

Review Quotes

"No Man's Land is a gripping drama . . ."
       The Telegram

"The play is sensitively written using the songs and values of the time to underline what we would consider a naive view of war, one which makes he end of many of these soldiers all the more poignant."
      Canadian Review of Materials magazine

"No Man's Land is a gripping drama. . . . The tale is well told, informative without being expository, embedded with subtle touches of the soldiers' panic and homesickness."    
       Joan Sullivan, The Telegram, October 16, 2005  

"The play is sensitively written using the songs and values of the time to underline what we would consider a naive view of war, one that makes the end of many of these soldier all the more poignant."    
      J. Lynn Fraser, Canadian Review of Materials, April 28, 2006

"This masterful adaptation of his celebrated war novel includes archival illustrations and photographs by Ned Pratt from Rising Tide Theatre's 2001 and 2003 productions of the piece in an exquisitely designed softcover edition."
      Ian C. Nelson, Canadian Book Review Annual