The evocative black and white video and sweeping original score envelop the performer in a live silent film - a hybrid of film & theatre. The immersive landscape illuminates her journey from turn of the century Yalta to New York and Hollywood in the 1920’s, including her infamous Garden of Allah.

Nazimova returns from her grave, her uncompromising voice and ever-watchful eye casting a gaze that speaks to where we have been, how far we’ve come, and what we need to hold onto as we work for progress. “By opening our eyes to the past, we are better able to see our present”.

Homophobia, sexism, racism, antisemitism, ageism: Nazimova was fighting these contemporary struggles back in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, but alone and without a Twitter account. Raising her voice and loving America “as only an immigrant can”. The importance of tolerance in society cannot be emphasized enough. Now more than ever, theatre has an important role to give voice to tolerance, celebrate diversity, and take back our collective herstory. We are all the stories we tell. As Nazimova said, “an artist is only dead when the last person to remember them dies”. Garden of Alla is a clarion call reminding us that individually we can make a difference and we all have a story to tell. Through art and in life, can make beautiful things in dark times. “As we silently, separately scratch shadows onto walls that are trying to divide us, closing in on us, once again. Break. Them. Down.”