Land ohne Wiederkehr (Land of no Return)
by Marina Davydovaby Marina Davydova
Content description
The Soviet Union is on the brink of collapse. In Azerbaijan, pogroms are taking place against the Armenian minority. Young Lada is forced to leave her beloved homeland. She finds a new home in Moscow. Decades later, as a critic of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, she is forced to flee once again. Renowned theatre director Marina Davydova draws on her own experiences to recount the devastating impact that political upheaval has on individuals and the hardships of life in exile.
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Lada is repeatedly forced to start a new life: born in Baku, she spends a happy childhood in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan until in 1990, a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, pogroms take place against the Armenian minority. Lada has Armenian roots and must escape to the hated foreign city of Moscow. This becomes a second home to her for several decades, she has a successful career here, starts a family, travels the entire world. Then 2022 arrives: as an undaunted critic of the attacks Ukraine she again receives death threats and is forced to flee. This time manages to reach Berlin.
In her first play, the distinguished theatre maker Marina Davydova draws on her own personal experiences. As a well-known critic and successful festival director at home all over the world, she was forced to settle in a new place. Against the background of recent violent history, in this autofictional play she describes the explosive geopolitical potential that lies in drawing borders between new nations and mature cultures. And the devastating personal dimension that wars inevitably bring with them for refugees, the need to find an exile and to reinvent oneself there.
The play is directed by Anica Tomić from Zagreb, who witnessed the breakup of the republic of Yugoslavia in her youth. The world premiere of »Land of no Return« will form the opening of the Welt/Bühne festival for 2027, where new plays by authors from all around the world are presented each year.
