No Woman’s Land is a powerful and engaging one-woman performance from Ciara O’Neill that blends verbatim theatre and storytelling to bring to life the voices of Belfast’s women activists. Developed through a series of interviews conducted in October 2024, the piece weaves together biographical accounts that illuminate the city’s vibrant feminist legacy.
As a work in progress – although it was far more than that – this review contains observations for consideration as part of the ongoing development process.
The simple black box staging was ideal for this multi-character performance with the musical opening of Simple Minds’ Belfast Child setting the scene. O’Neill’s own arrival brings her own unaccompanied rendition of Belfast, which was powerful and moving, and with its repeat at the conclusion, serves to frame the narrative of the piece. Do we need that and Simple Minds though? The alternative is to open with one and close with the other. In my view, O Neill’s impressive vocal has the greater impact.
The use of a suitcase to unpack the characters and stories was a superb visual device but do we need to see the props upfront that will reinforce each characterisation later or could they simply be brought out as it unfolds and we meet a new perspective on this emotional and captivating journey.
The characters themselves are drawn from real-life interviews O’Neill has held with an emphasis on female activism during The Troubles across a range of issues from paramilitarism to diversity, from abortion to trade unionism with great mastery in O’Neill’s performance to maintain a neutrality around each character which subtly reflected the similarities between people and situations rather than any perceived divide. I also like that we don’t specifically identify each individual as in many ways their experiences are reflective of others.
There is a particularly powerful line towards the close about the women who dealt with grief on one hand and washing on the other, and those who made the dinner. I wonder whether there is an opportunity for one of those characters to appear to reflect activism of a different sort during the humdrum existence of living in a warzone.
There was good use of lighting at key moments throughout which was well-coordinated with the on-stage delivery and with the exception of some background bomb noise at one point, the conscious decision to avoid adding sound was the right one so there was no distraction from the power of ordinarily stated lines.
O’Neill has clearly undertaken extensive research to get to this point, and I would anticipate its performance in the New Year will generate more memories being shared. I wonder whether there is an opportunity for the work to be captured as a live archive piece in a Belfast museum, including perhaps a recording of the piece, and an opportunity for people to add their own stories to it so it can continue to evolve and serve as an inspiration for the next generation of Belfast women to advance their cause.
An impressive piece of work on a number of levels with great technical skill and understanding of performance space, I wish O’Neill every success with its ongoing development and performance back home in January 2026.
No Woman’s Land has one further performance on 30th October at 7pm at The Rose Theatre, Arts Centre, Edge Hill University. Tickets are free but do carry an age guidance of 16+ and are available via https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/event/no-womans-land/
Reviewer: Mark Davoren
Reviewed: 29th October 2025
North West End UK Rating:
(work in progress)