OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE

“The daily strains of old age disappear as elderly residents and a robot within an Armenian Soviet-era retirement home lose themselves in staging the timeless world of Shakespeare”

“To be or not to be?” echoes through the halls of a derelict Soviet-era retirement home, where a group of its elderly residents rehearse “Shakespeare’s Sins”, an original play in which the renowned playwright’s own characters confront him over their tragic fates.

From casting to premiere night, Outliving Shakespeare follows the retiree theatre troupe as they bond in and between rehearsals, transforming from a lighthearted look at aging into a deeper, thought-provoking exploration of the loneliness that accompanies it. As the production unfolds, the theatre starts mirroring reality.

A resident believing she has found her “Romeo” is suddenly struck with deceit, while another betrays their lifelong beliefs in search of enlightenment. One attempts to return to her family only to be cast out by her son, while another rejoins the troupe following the ethnic cleansing of her homeland, Nagorno-Karabakh. And there are those who never make the final curtain call. The main storyline evolves into a portrait of the actors’ lives offstage, set in the spartan yet colourful world of their shared home, a character in itself. An eclectic building is frozen in the chaos of 90’s Armenia – where stray cats play in dim, lonely hallways that lead into sunlit, abandoned rooms, covered in kitsch frescos of Yeltsin and Clinton holding hands in the Garden of Eden.

Among the standout characters are two lifelong friends who embody the contrasts of this story. Ligia clings to the illusions of the stage, performing Queen Anne, as Anahit watches on from offstage during rehearsals. While not in the play, she assumes the role of “court jester” in the wider drama of the retirement home. In the end, both of them carry the burden of feeling unneeded, like King Lear cast aside by those he trusted most. Set in a place suspended in time, the film is a tender, unsparing portrait of a generation that once lived fully – and now waits in the wings.

Film Details