‘Outliving Shakespeare’: Characters Confront the Bard in a Play Staged at an Armenian Retirement Home

Hollywood Reporter

To be, or not to be? That is the question echoing through a derelict Soviet-era retirement 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 their tragic fates. And a documentary crew was there to capture the process on film.

“From casting to premiere night, Outliving Shakespeare follows the retiree theater troupe bonding in and between rehearsals, transforming from a lighthearted, warm look at the innocent dignity of aging, into a deeper, thought-provoking exploration of the loneliness that accompanies it,” reads a synopsis for the film. “As the production unfolds, the theater mirrors reality.”

Outliving Shakespeare, premiering Tuesday in the 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-based Bars Media and the Netherlands-based Bind features Vardan Hovhannisyan, Sahakyan and Mariam Davtyan as producers for Bars, with Joram Willink, Esther van Driesum and Rosalien Hollestelle as co-producers for Bind.

Ghazaryan previously collaborated with Sahakyan on her animated feature Aurora’s Sunrise as the editor and live-action shooting director. Aurora’s Sunrise was Armenia’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 makes possible,” explains Sahakyan. “In Outliving Shakespeare, I wanted to capture those shifting colors of elderhood inside a dilapidated retirement home in Armenia, where a group of residents decided to rehearse Shakespeare as a way to bring rhythm and meaning into their days.”

Adds Ghazaryan: “As life and theater begin to merge, their performances reveal truths they could never articulate in ordinary conversation. What unfolds is not simply a story about aging or acting, but about memory, love and the deep human desire to be acknowledged. 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.