(New) "Other Shores"

Berlin. Charlottenburg (2026) is the third and final installment of the trilogy by Russian playwright, director, and writer Marina Davydova (in exile since 2022). Following the internationally acclaimed first two productions, *Eternal Russia* (Berlin, 2017) and *Museum of Uncounted Voices* (Vienna Festival and Freiburg, 2023), Davydova once again turns her attention to her central theme: the intertwining of history, memory, and the present. Like the two preceding works, *Berlin. Charlottenburg* moves between theater, performance, and the philosophy of history. The protagonist, an actress in exile, encounters voices and ghosts—most notably the spirit of Berlin: a city caught between freedom, political upheaval, and exile, then as now.

The title of the event refers to Vladimir Nabokov’s famous autobiographical text “Other Shores” (1951). Nabokov also appears in Davydova’s play and throws the audience off balance.

The play’s premiere is scheduled for the “Voices” festival in Berlin (November 2026). Excerpts from the text will be presented in Freiburg even before the premiere. Marina Weis and Henry Meyer will read, Marina Davydova will provide commentary, and the exceptional pianist Nikolai Medvedev will accompany the reading with works by Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Prokofiev, Claude Debussy, George Gershwin, and Victor Ullmann.

The event is organized in cooperation with the Tsvetaeva Center at the University campus Freiburg and Henschel Verlag.

Marina Davydova, author, reading and commentary
Nikolay Medvedev, piano
Marina Weis and Henry Meyer, recitation