LAND OF NO RETURN

In 1990, Baku, then capital of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, witnessed a pogrom against its Armenian population led by Azerbaijani nationalist fanatics. This tragic event prompted most Armenians to seek exile abroad and coincided with the impending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Marina Davydova, born in Baku in 1966, is a distinguished figure in the theater world, known as a festival director, author, theater critic, and historian. Having studied theater in Moscow, Davydova's work, Land of No Return, spans nearly 40 years of history. Its narrative begins on the eve of the fateful events in Baku in the late 1980s and concludes with the ongoing war against Ukraine.

The story follows a journey from Baku to Moscow, and subsequently to Germany, illustrating the "circles of hell" that exiles endure across different eras. Through its fictional characters, the play offers individual perspectives on these tragic historical events.

The performance is in Russian with English subtitles.