«Queer Quark»
Experimental theatr performance, multimedia, aerial choreography, live music 60 min.

Directed and written by Evgeniya Rudyuk (based on the "Birobidzhan Diary" by Pavel Kushnir)

Premiere confirmed in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as part of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival 2026 in September, 2026

The story is based on the life experience of Evgeniya Rudyuk itself, the migrant artist, who was forced to flee her homeland because of her political beliefs and start her life anew, from scratch, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Amsterdam, as the capital of migrant life, fringe culture and liberal arts center, is given a special role in the performance. The production explores the split identity of a migrant living between homeland and exile, guilt and freedom, survival and creation.

The title “Queer Quark” brings together two concepts that challenge fixed definitions. In physics, a Quark is a fundamental particle whose properties cannot be observed directly and exist only in relation to other particles; it never appears alone, but always in connected states. “Queer” similarly describes an identity that resists binary logic, stable categorization, and normative frameworks. 

In the performance, the migrant artist is understood as a “queer quark”: a being in constant superposition, simultaneously belonging to multiple cultures, languages, genders, and political realities. The title alludes to both quantum theory and queer thought to name a state of existence that is unstable yet real, fractured yet whole — a form of identity that does not seek resolution, but insists on the right to exist in complexity. And this should not lead to cultural and social isolation.

This rich metaphor from physics describes how the life of the artist Evgeniya Rudyuk changed after the death of another Russian artist, widely renowned in Amsterdam and around the world  - Pavel Kushnir. Performance contains drama text, classical live music, aerial choreography and video installation. Using metaphors from quantum physics — duality, superposition, and entanglement — the performance combines the documentary text by political prisoner Pavel Kushnir and autofiction text by Evgeniya Rudyuk itself.

Together, these elements combine to form an experimental theatre narrative reflecting on political trauma, loss, and the question of how to continue living and creating after displacement.

Artistic production group:
Piano performer - Maria Nemtsova
Set designer - Natalia (Natasha) Smyslova
Actress - Anastasia Reshetnikova
Video artist - Lidia Sinelnik

«The Divine Kwakwacomedy»
Promenade theatre performance, street, immersive, site-specific comedy, 80 min.

Directed and written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

Premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, as part of the Theater Festival "THEATER 360" in the Brusnitsyn Cultural Quarter on 20 of September, 2025

This performance is an author's reinterpretation of Aristophanes' comedy "The Frogs", which, in the form of flirting with the theatrical form, sets itself an important and urgent task — to reflect on the modern situation of the actor and the theater as a phenomenon.

Together with the characters of the play, the audience is invited to go to Hades in search of answers to questions about the secret of the popularity and purpose of art and immerse themselves in Dionysian games.

This story is about how pointless the pursuit of popularity in art is. In this work, I used autofiction elements, inventing new plot characters based on the actors' feelings about their place in the modern theatre.

Also here I aimed to comprehend the ritual nature of the theatre as a social phenomenon. The performance provides answers to the question of why we should engage in theater today in the format of the metamodern trend of "new sincerity".

Artistic production group:
Assistant Director - Galya Shiyan
Set designer - Maria Asha
Costume designer - Sonya Sonnaya
Props designer - Anastasia Motok
Rap lyrics author - Katya Holms
Musical beat maker - Artyom the Dead

Cast:
Aeschylus - Anna Olshanetskaya
Euripides - Irina Velikaya
Dionysus - Olga Vasina
Charon - Maria Teteryuk
Aristophanes - Anna Pavlova
Playback actresses - Tatiana Krasovitova, Olga Novikova
Performers - Alina Mukoseeva, Joe Anastasia, Elena Evstigneeva, Anastasia Motok, Maria Asha, Mariam Traore

«Orestes and the Flies of conscience»

Performance, political satire, eccentric comedy, dystopia, 1h 05 min.

Directed and written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

Premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia (Theatrical studio "VINCI") on 28 of June, 2025

This performance is based on Sartre's play "The Flies" and the ancient Greek cycle "Oresteia" by Aeschylus. It is a political satire on modern Russia, describing the society which is devoid of any morality except the philosophy of comfort, collective guilt and cult of death.

According to the new author's interpretation, Electra is waiting for her brother Orestes to return to his hometown of Argos, where their father Agamemnon was killed, and now the tyrant Aegisthus rules. But instead of a hero brother, Elektra meets an overly well-mannered young man, raised on the philosophy of a superman and completely unwilling to take revenge. Elektra has to take her fate and the future of the city into her own hands. She achieves her goal — but at what cost?

In the proposed plot, the viewer will be able not only to sympathize with the main characters, but also to laugh at the absurdity of necrophiliac reality in a metamodern way, as well as immerse themselves in the cultural space of the Soviet myth.

This is a story about how a victim becomes an executioner. The message is that in an era of tyranny, it is better to become a victim than an executioner.

Artistic production group:
Set designer - Varya Vovsi
Production designer - Maria Asha
Props designer - Anastasia Pavlova
Choreographer - Olga Vasina
Lighting and sound artist - Konstantin Karelin

Cast:
Elektra - Irina Velikaya
Orestes - Alexandra Zatsepilina
Jupiter - Anastasia Batanova
Egisf - Aziza Tashkhanova
Nietzsche (Teacher) - Rita Olendskaya
Two Flies - Maria Teteryuk, Anna Olshanetskaya
Argos citizens - Tatiana Luneva, Anna Pavlova, Victoria Alikaeva

«Don't Noah Believe», 2025

Theatre play, autofiction, magical realism, black comedy, 16 pp.
Link to the play text

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

The ground is getting out from under my feet. My legs won't hold up. The ground is burning under my feet. Where do the legs grow from?

This text was born as an attempt to come to terms with the alcohol addiction of a loved one. Here drunkenness becomes equal to the Old Testament sin and leads to the collapse not only of the author's personal world, but also of the entire cosmos.
The play takes place in a hospital operating room, which is magically transformed in the heroine's mind.

This experience becomes the starting point for the narrative of love for his father, where it is impossible.