‘Outliving Shakespeare’: Characters Confront the Bard in a Play Staged at an Armenian Retirement Home (Exclusive Trailer)
To be, or not to be? That is the question echoing through a derelict Soviet-eraretirement home in Armenia, where a group of residents rehearse for an original play that may even dazzle William Shakespeare. The play, Shakespeare’s Sins, sees the characters of the famous playwright, who is often simply called “The Bard,” confront him over…
To be, or not to be? That is the question echoing through a derelict Soviet-eraretirement home in Armenia, where a group of residents rehearse for an original play that may even dazzle William Shakespeare. The play, Shakespeare’s Sins, sees the characters of the famous playwright, who is often simply called “The Bard,” confront him over theirtragic fates. And a documentary crew was there to capture the process on film.
“From casting to premiere night, Outliving Shakespeare follows the retiree theater troupebonding in and between rehearsals, transforming from a lighthearted, warm look at theinnocent dignity of aging, into a deeper, thought-provoking exploration of the loneliness thataccompanies it,” reads a synopsis for the film. “As the production unfolds, the theater mirrors reality.”
Outliving Shakespeare, premiering Tuesday inthe Luminous strand at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam(IDFA), comes from directors Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan. For the latter, it marks the feature directorial debut.
The production from Armenia-basedBars Mediaand the Netherlands-based Bindfeatures Vardan Hovhannisyan, Sahakyan and MariamDavtyan as producers for Bars, with Joram Willink, Esther vanDriesum and Rosalien Hollestelle as co-producers for Bind.
Ghazaryan previously collaborated withSahakyan on her animated featureAurora’s Sunriseas the editor and live-action shootingdirector.Aurora’s SunrisewasArmenia’s 2023 entry for the best international feature film Oscar.
Now, the duo is bringing Outliving Shakespeare to the world. After all, all the world’s a stage.
“I’ve always been drawn to observing elders — their lives hold so many layers of love,humor, longing, and regret, all expressed with a kind of honesty that only age makespossible,” explains Sahakyan. “InOutliving Shakespeare, I wanted to capture those shiftingcolors of elderhood inside a dilapidated retirement home in Armenia, where a group ofresidents decided to rehearse Shakespeare as a way to bring rhythm and meaning into theirdays.”
Adds Ghazaryan: “As life and theater begin to merge, their performancesreveal truths they could never articulate in ordinary conversation. What unfolds is not simplya story about aging or acting, but about memory, love and the deep human desire to beacknowledged. Before the curtain falls, each of them finds a moment to be truly seen.”
THR can now exclusively premiere the first trailer for Outliving Shakespeare. Check it out below, and get ready for the love, the laughs, the drama and much more.
