Marina Davydova
MUSEUM OF UNCOUNTED VOICES
Nation-building as a battlefield: this “museum” presents the bloody history of the territory that was occupied in the 20th century by the Soviet Union. A challenging sprint through almost a thousand years, countless redrawings of its borders and moving life stories – including the personal history of Marina Davydova herself who, following Russia’s war of aggression, now finds herself a refugee for the second time.
Language: English with German translation via headphones and Russian with German and English surtitles
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“There is only one map!” a loudspeaker proclaims. “No, there are many of them” – another voice immediately contradicts. In the second chapter of this production the audience finds itself in the middle of a conflict between five former Soviet republics: Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia fling around irreconcilable interpretations of their shared history. Meanwhile the only actor says nothing, she just silently does what the voices tell her to do.
At one point the audience finds itself in the middle of the exihibition and can examine details at close quarters: crown jewels, national costumes, maps and photos of revolutionaries. Sometimes it is invited up onto the platform. It repeatedly hears new voices and new perspectives. These range from the voice of a Russia suffering from delusions of grandeur to the monologue of an actor who tells stories from Marina Davydova’s life: born the daughter of an Armenian in Baku, she fled from an anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan in 1990 and again from Moscow in 2022 as a Russian opponent of the war.
In five chapters, the MUSEUM OF UNCOUNTED VOICES shows why explosive conflicts have formed around the borders of the former Soviet Union. There are no certainties here.
“Marina Davydova makes the past self-reflectively, darkly and mercilessly alive. Visitors are part of the play, part of the scenery and part of the story. A ‘museum’ well worth visiting.” Eva Sager, Wiener Zeitung
Credits ›
Concept, Text, Direction: Marina Davydova
Stage Design: Zinovy Margolin
With: Marina Weis, Chulpan Khamatova
Voices: Odin Biron (Episode I EMPIRE), Jamal Ali, Luka Kalandadze, Igor Shugaleev, Gurgen Tsaturyan (Episode II NATIONS), Jamal Ali, Odin Biron, Marina Davydova, Boris Falikov, Luka Kalandadze, Alexey Kokhanov, Elizaveta Petrova, Farrukh Pirov, Igor Shugaleev, Gurgen Tsaturyan, Ekaterina Voronova (Episode IV PEOPLE)
Music: Vladimir Rannev
Technical Direction: Roman Streuselberger
Video: Oleg Mikhailov
Video Technician: Mikhail Ivanov
Lighting and Sound: Iurii Galkin
Stage Technicians: Bodo Hermann, César Martins
Translation: Sergei Ostrovsky, Sonia Ostrovsky (English), Yvonne Griesel (German) Production Manager, Assistant Director and Surtitles: Ekaterina Voronova
Choreography: Anna Abalikhina
Assistant Choreographers: Sonya Levin, Anna Abalikhina
Researcher: Mikhail Kaluzhsky
Set Builders: SC ART DECO SRL, Wiener Werkstätten
Props: Daria Artemova
Props Assistant: Vera Liulko
Design: Jürgen Fehrmann, Gea Gosse
Costumes: Marcus Barros Cardoso, Vera Liulko, Aleix Llusa Lopez
Technical Director Touring: Patrick Tucholski (HAU Hebbel am Ufer)
Production Manager and Tour Manager: Elisabeth Knauf (HAU Hebbel am Ufer)
Production ›
A work commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. A production by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin and the Wiener Festwochen in co-production with Theater Freiburg.
Biographies ›
Marina Davydova is a theatre critic, theatre director, playwright and producer. She was a theatre critic for the newspaper ‘Izvestia’ and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine ‘TEATR’ until March 2022. Davydova is also a regular contributor to ‘Theater heute’. She has received numerous prizes, including the Stanislavsky Prize for Best Book Publication in 2005. In 1998 Davydova was one of the initiators of the NET (New European Theatre) Festival in Moscow, and served as its Artistic Director for 23 years. Her productions ‘Eternal Russia’, commissioned by the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, and ‘Checkpoint Woodstock’, as well as her play ‘Trance’ first premiered in Germany and then toured internationally. ‘Eternal Russia’ was awarded a Special Prize by the international jury at the BITEF Theatre Festival in Belgrade in 2018. In 2016 Davydova was Curator of the theatre programme for the Wiener Festwochen and she recently took over as Drama Director of the Salzburg Festival with effect from 2024. As an open opponent of Russia’s war against Ukraine she was forced to leave Russia. Since then, she has lived in Berlin.
Chulpan Khamatova studied Acting in Moscow and London. From 1998 to 2022 she was employed full-time at Moscow’s Sovremennik Theatre, and made guest appearances at the Theatre of Nations and the Gogol Center. She has worked with Alvis Hermanis, Thomas Ostermeier, Robert Lepage, Rimas Tuminas, Kirill Serebrennikov and others. Her film work brought her into contact with the German film industry. Since 1999 she has worked in film and tv, including in Germany. Her most succesful film internationally has been ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ (2003). To date Khamatova has played over 70 roles in Russian and European films. Since 2005 she has been an active campaigner in support of children with oncological and hematological diseases, and co-founded the charity Podari Zhizn in 2006. It has since treated more than 73,000 children. In February 2022 she signed a petition against Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. She was forced to leave Russia shortly afterwards. Since then, she has lived in Latvia, where she works as an actor with the New Riga Theatre.