ADO
(Azərbaycan Dağınıq Oda)
Theatre Established as Azerbaijan’s first independent theatre
Founder: Elmin Badalov
(Azərbaycan Dağınıq Oda)
Theatre Established as Azerbaijan’s first independent theatre
Founder: Elmin Badalov
ADO (Azərbaycan Dağınıq Oda, “Azerbaijan Scattered Room”) is Azerbaijan’s first independent theatre. It was founded in 2013 by Elmin Badalov, first under the name Oda (“room”), and became ADO in 2015. From the start it worked without state funding or institutional protection, and it built its practice around independence: the right to decide for itself what to make, how, and with whom.
ADO was never only a theatre company. Alongside productions, performances, and street performances, it organised caricature competitions, festivals, film presentations, discussions, exhibitions, music days, and book presentations: an open space in which many people could find themselves.
Without a permanent building, ADO moved through a series of rented spaces in Baku, repeatedly facing police raids, evictions, and utility cuts, and turned its mobility and “scatteredness” into a method. It toured southern Azerbaijan, performed in Georgia and at festivals in France, Italy, Romania, and elsewhere, and from 2017 fought a long legal and public battle for the right to perform in the street.
In January 2023 Elmin Badalov travelled to Berlin and did not return to Azerbaijan; in October 2025 he announced the suspension of ADO’s activities inside the country. Out of ADO’s experience he developed the After-Theatre Model, which treats a performance as a process that begins before the show and continues in the audience’s minds after it.
ADO was never only a theatre company. Alongside productions, performances, and street performances, it organised caricature competitions, festivals, film presentations, discussions, exhibitions, music days, and book presentations: an open space in which many people could find themselves.
Without a permanent building, ADO moved through a series of rented spaces in Baku, repeatedly facing police raids, evictions, and utility cuts, and turned its mobility and “scatteredness” into a method. It toured southern Azerbaijan, performed in Georgia and at festivals in France, Italy, Romania, and elsewhere, and from 2017 fought a long legal and public battle for the right to perform in the street.
In January 2023 Elmin Badalov travelled to Berlin and did not return to Azerbaijan; in October 2025 he announced the suspension of ADO’s activities inside the country. Out of ADO’s experience he developed the After-Theatre Model, which treats a performance as a process that begins before the show and continues in the audience’s minds after it.
Leyla Quliyeva collaborated with ADO Theatre-Collective from 2015 to 2019. The works presented in this section document her artistic contributions to ADO’s productions during this period.
Crazy Heel
Street Performance
Crazy Heel is a street performance that explores the concept of freedom and the human search for freedom. One of the main aims of the performance is to demonstrate that freedom is an ambiguous concept that can be understood in different ways.
The performance was presented in Tbilisi, Georgia, at Liberty Square. The open-air performance was attended by more than 200 spectators.
2019
Crazy Heel is a street performance that explores the concept of freedom and the human search for freedom. One of the main aims of the performance is to demonstrate that freedom is an ambiguous concept that can be understood in different ways.
The performance was presented in Tbilisi, Georgia, at Liberty Square. The open-air performance was attended by more than 200 spectators.
2019
ADO Theatre-Collective in Lankaran and Lerik
Touring Performance
ADO Theatre-Collective toured Lankaran and Lerik, Azerbaijan, presenting Kərpic and Yer və İnsan. Despite restrictions imposed on the planned performances in public venues, local residents welcomed the collective into their homes, where the performances took place. In Veri village, Lerik, the team also organized a balloon show for children and shared an informal celebration with the local community.
2018
ADO Theatre-Collective toured Lankaran and Lerik, Azerbaijan, presenting Kərpic and Yer və İnsan. Despite restrictions imposed on the planned performances in public venues, local residents welcomed the collective into their homes, where the performances took place. In Veri village, Lerik, the team also organized a balloon show for children and shared an informal celebration with the local community.
2018
The Wedding
The Wedding is an experimental theatre performance based on Bertolt Brecht’s play The Wedding. Set around a wedding gathering, the work explores human relationships, social behaviour, and the contradictions underlying the norms of everyday social life through irony and absurdity.
The wedding celebration becomes more than a social gathering; it becomes a space where people’s relationships, social roles, and hidden conflicts are gradually revealed. As the tensions behind everyday politeness and social conventions emerge, an ordinary celebration gradually turns into an absurd and chaotic situation.
The performance reinterprets Brecht’s satirical and critical theatrical approach through an experimental stage language.
2017
The wedding celebration becomes more than a social gathering; it becomes a space where people’s relationships, social roles, and hidden conflicts are gradually revealed. As the tensions behind everyday politeness and social conventions emerge, an ordinary celebration gradually turns into an absurd and chaotic situation.
The performance reinterprets Brecht’s satirical and critical theatrical approach through an experimental stage language.
2017
Brıck
Brick is a performance created during an artistic residency at Art Villa Garikula in Georgia in 2017. The performance was authored and directed by Elmin Badalov
2017
2017
Three Bananas Fell from the Sky
This spectacle inspired by motifs from traditional Azerbaijani fairy tales and reinterpreted for an adult audience.
The performance uses an unconventional theatrical language, distorted versions of traditional Azerbaijani music, and elements of contemporary performance to explore human struggles, the difficulties of living, and the possibility of finding a way out of situations that feel like a trap.
The work combines familiar elements of Azerbaijani folklore with an alternative contemporary theatrical approach, transforming the traditional fairy-tale world into a space for reflecting on existential and social questions.
Written & Directed : Elmin Badalov
Set & Costume Design: Leyla Quliyeva
2017
The performance uses an unconventional theatrical language, distorted versions of traditional Azerbaijani music, and elements of contemporary performance to explore human struggles, the difficulties of living, and the possibility of finding a way out of situations that feel like a trap.
The work combines familiar elements of Azerbaijani folklore with an alternative contemporary theatrical approach, transforming the traditional fairy-tale world into a space for reflecting on existential and social questions.
Written & Directed : Elmin Badalov
Set & Costume Design: Leyla Quliyeva
2017
GOTT / The Invasion of Heaven
GOTT, also known as The Invasion of Heaven, is an experimental theatre performance by ADO Theatre-Collective. The work explores social and cultural taboos, questioning established norms and concepts that have become treated as untouchable or sacred.
Through an unconventional theatrical language, the performance reflects on the possibility of challenging accepted structures and reconsidering deeply rooted social ideas. The title The Invasion of Heaven functions as a metaphor for entering and questioning a space traditionally perceived as untouchable.
The performance premiered in Baku in 2016 and was later presented internationally, including in Tbilisi, Georgia.
2016
STOP
They could be from the same family, brother and mother, sisters, they could be the Queen and her courtiers. That's the maddness, the chaotic injustise of this world which are shown in this performance with touches of burlesque accents of tragic buffoonery. What happens when one person, different from others, from the masses, suddenly wakes up, stands up, and.....?
2015
İnstallations and paintings created for ADO
A selection of experimental costume pieces created for various ADO Theatre-Collective projects over the years. These works explore unconventional forms, materials, and visual expressions for performance.
