1993
A theatre that had to be saved
In March 1993 Alexander Sharovsky was appointed chief director of the Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theatre named after Samad Vurgun. It was one of the hardest years: the country was emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and entering a war, the audience was leaving, the halls were emptying.
He did not reinvent the theatre, nor did he pretend that nothing was happening. The strategy was simple and difficult at once: bring the public back into the auditorium — without losing the level.
The theatre held. By the mid-2000s the Russian Drama was again one of the best-attended stages in Baku, and its academic title and status as a national asset had stopped being a formality.
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Half a century in one theatre
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7 Khagani Street
The theatre traces its history to 1920, to the Baku Workers' Theatre that grew out of the city's first Russian drama companies. Since 1937 it has borne the name of Samad Vurgun, and a bust of the poet stands in the foyer.
The building at 7 Khagani Street is the address of half a century of Sharovsky's life. He entered it as an actor in 1976 and walked out of those doors as chief director only in 2026.
It was here that the farewell ceremony took place on 9 September 2026.
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Molière and Elchin on one playbill
He staged very different work, and that was a deliberate position. European classics (Molière, Maugham, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Eduardo De Filippo) stood beside Russian comedy (Grigori Gorin, Mikhail Zadornov) and contemporary Azerbaijani drama.
Elchin, Rustam Ibragimbekov, Hidayat, Vladimir Neverov were the authors he returned to again and again. He also staged Azerbaijani classics: “The Vizier of the Lankaran Khanate” by Mirza Fatali Akhundov and “Farhad and Shirin” by Samad Vurgun.
He explained it without theory: “What matters is that a person walks out after the performance and carries a smile, or a tear, or a thought with them for at least ten more minutes.”
He also worked outside Baku: two productions at the A. Ivanov Russian Drama Theatre in Odesa, based on plays by Ilya Pikovsky (1992), “The Dowryless Man” at the Maxim Gorky Drama Theatre in Rostov (2005), and a variety programme for Afag Bashirgizi's Moscow theatre.
Playbill
Selected productions
An incomplete list of productions staged by Alexander Sharovsky at the Samad Vurgun Russian Drama Theatre.
“The theatre is a place you should arrive at forty-five minutes before the performance begins.”
Alexander Sharovsky