When theatre director Evgeniya Rudyuk traveled to the Jewish autonomous district in Russia’s Far East in 2025 to take part in a research expedition, it was her first time visiting the region where she was born and raised since fleeing Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While there, she discovered the story of Pavel Kushnir, a pianist who had died on hunger strike in the region a year earlier after being jailed for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rudyuk saw a link between Kushnir’s fate and the history of Stalinist repression in the Jewish autonomous district — as well as with her own experiences and inner conflicts as a Russian artist in exile.
These parallels would inspire her new play “Queer Quark,” a reference to quantum entanglement that explores the invisible connections between people separated by place, time and circumstance. “For me, it is a universal story of resilience, the loss of home and identity,” she told The Moscow Times.
An excerpt of “Queer Quark” will be performed at Memory Remains, the third installment of the Artists Against the Kremlin exhibition at De Balie in Amsterdam, from Aug. 14-Sept. 6.
