the project is supported by SPIN
Supporting Principal Investigators 2024
Nika Parkhomovskaja
“Russian-Speaking Theater Outside Russia”
(University of Zurich, 2024)
A dense and compelling text that explores the Russian theatrical diaspora following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Parkhomovskaia draws a true map of Russian theatre in exile — from Berlin to Tbilisi, from Almaty to Tel Aviv — where directors, actors, and set designers reconstruct a theatrical language “without a homeland.”
The author examines how the Russian language functions both
as a constraint and as a point of support: it remains the primary medium of artistic communication, yet it also risks creating cultural ghettos. Figures such as Serebrennikov, Kulyabin, Didenko, and Khamatova emerge as key protagonists, reinventing the European and Caucasian theatrical scene by blending local experiences with Russian cultural memory.
The text offers a complex perspective: theatre in exile is not merely
a form of survival, but a laboratory for new forms of artistic freedom,
in which the scenic gesture replaces the lost homeland.
More than a year has passed since this article was written,
and during this time the landscape of Russian-speaking theatre outside Russia has changed significantly. On the one hand, there is an increasing move away from working exclusively
in the Russian language: new projects are emerging that are oriented toward audiences who do not speak Russian.
On the other hand, local initiatives aimed specifically
at Russian-speaking audiences are also taking shape (numerous independent commercial productions, the “Paris Children
and Youth Theatre,” play readings in Russian, etc.).
In addition, the rift between theatre practitioners who have gone into exile and those who have remained in (or returned to) Russia is becoming ever more visible. The transparency
of borders — both mental and physical — is steadily decreasing; censorship and self-censorship are increasing; connections and professional ties are breaking or being interrupted. Personally, I have the strong sense that over time the gap between Russian-speaking theatre in exile — or, if one prefers, in the diaspora — and theatre in the “metropolis” will only continue to widen.
-- Nika