Set against an ongoing geopolitical conflict, Black Garden is always evolving to embrace the current political narrative. Since 2017, the piece has seen several iterations, and has currently landed into the form of a two-hander (needing only two actors), geared for touring. One of the most exciting aspects of this process is the active collaboration between the playwright, director, actors and design team to create, discover and flesh out the truest form of this play.

Two warring nations, Armenia and Azerbaijan, cling to a legacy of mutual hatred. But what does it cost to maintain the divide? What is the price of living inside the animosity?

Inspired by real historical events in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, where over 30,000 soldiers were killed between 1988-1994, Black Garden is a theatrical collage that portrays the harrowing landscape of an Armenian woman’s trauma. She is haunted by the memories of a lost lover, while two glutinous buffoons and self-serving leaders contrive to abuse their countries for their own personal power, a man is imprisoned and interrogated for unknown crimes, and a handful of diaspora Armenians are looking for love and their identities.

“Black Garden has such a dynamic that this theatrical creation awakens the curiosity of the public by pushing them to decipher the depths of this discord.” — Florence Yérémian , SYMA NEWS