Judging from their Facebook page, I had the impression that the theatre was on a grand and successful tour across Europe. But they say they feel like migrants with no home, and long to find a new space in Chișinău. After agreeing to rent one space for a play in March, the administrators dropped the deal last minute. When they invited a Bucharest theatre to play in a small traditional theatre earlier last year, they found out that the Ministry of Culture had rung the administrators of that theatre to ask them to raise the rent so that Teatru-Spălătorie could not afford to pay it. Their criticism of government figures in their plays did not suit the authoritarian party then ruling Moldova.

Their next production is also in Germany, but the collective hopes to perform it at home too. Yet they’re worried about finding a space to stage their plays. “I find it difficult to understand why those working at the theatres with spaces pretend that they don’t see us,” Talmazan says. “There isn’t a solidarity among artists, but also people more generally … the haves don’t share with the have-nots. It’s like that in the theatre world, but everywhere else in Moldova, too.”

But perhaps the theatre has reason to remain optimistic. Since they left, the community created around the theatre dispersed into different venues. New independent theatres, art hubs, and alternative DJ and party nights have popped up in their wake. The path forged by Teatru-Spălătorie may have been a difficult one, but it left an indelible mark on Moldova’s cultural landscape. Now, this new and fertile ground may finally be ready to welcome them home.