Ghost Land Reviews
Night Tinted Glasses- Recommended
"...This last vignette functions with an epilogue, again with the same Doctor as before, and here the full context of all we've experienced since the lights came up at the start becomes clear. I was shaken. Among other things, the play ceased to be about just what is happening in Ukraine or even about the hell of modern war. It became about me, and you, and everyone who has ever had to endure the trauma of real evil. Of those moments when the worst of us turn this earth into a real Hell."
Stage Raw- Recommended
"...The play’s Brechtian style, with some actors speaking to the audience instead of to each other, has the characters serve more as symbols than as full-fledged people, though the negative depiction of the Russians fosters more sympathy for the Ukrainians, which is the goal of the play. Bondarenko’s denouement also bitterly reminds us that having a perennial, dehumanized bogeyman to pin hate on is vital to for justifying and enduring any war."
Haines His Way- Recommended
"...Santa Monica’s City Garage is currently presenting the World Premiere of Ghost Land. In a program note, the playwright says the war has changed the way he writes. He says he now writes “because there are voices in my head that want to be heard. It’s like I’m haunted by ghosts of this horrible war that speak through me. It’s as if I live not only in reality, but also in some ghost land.” The reality of Bondarenko’s ghost land is vividly brought to life in Frederique Michel’s staging. It’s simple yet involving. The writing is heightened at times as is the direction and the acting."