A guided tour to the only city that exists twice; once on earth and once in heaven.
There is a far away city which cannot be named. Its people are silenced and its landscape is disappearing. In this distant city, daily life is stranger than fiction: you can see the sea but are forbidden to touch it, being honest is illegal and those with ancestral connections to the city are forbidden to enter it. Propelled by a need to tell the city’s story before it is forever forgotten, a resident records the stories behind his favourite places.
This alternative guided tour allows you to wander through the streets of his hometown. Your journey to this distant city will take place within the streets of Coventry, and requires only comfortable shoes and an open imagination.
The Land’s Heart Is Greater than Its Map, looks at themes of displacement and raises questions about who has the right to claim the history of places. It is a headphones promenade piece with a guide that takes audiences outside the building on a walk through the city.
Ramzi Maqdisi is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer and actor. His work addresses the minute and everyday aspects of life under occupation. Using subtle, subversive and visual storytelling, he seeks to convey an experience of the overwhelming nature of occupation through zooming in on the tiny details that we all, as humans, share.
Olivia Furber is a theatre director and writer working across theatre and installation; indoors, outdoors and in places you weren’t expecting to find her.
Developed with the support of Arts Council England, The Barbican, Shubbak Festival, The British Council, Hoch X, The Albany, Ensemble 52 and the Blast Theory Residency Programme. The artistic concept was initially conceived through a research workshop with Meta Theater, Villa Waldberta and IETM.