From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Yerevan Dome Collapse — Accounts of a 1994 Immersive Theatre Piece
This article documents contradictory eyewitness accounts of an event whose existence is disputed. For confirmed immersive works, see Immersive works and Beach Surgery.
The Yerevan Dome Collapse refers to conflicting eyewitness accounts of an immersive adaptation allegedly staged in 1994 at a venue in Yerevan, Armenia . Two radically contradictory narratives describe the piece: one claims a 6-hour participatory walk through interconnected domed spaces mirroring Shanbudia's dome; the other describes a 90-minute installation. Both accounts agree that structural failure occurred during performance—though one claims "controlled collapse" and the other describes emergency evacuation.
No photographs, video, programs, or archival materials survive. The venue itself was demolished in 2003. A single mention may appear in a 1995 Armenian arts journal (████ ), whose archives are incomplete and inaccessible. Fandom remains sharply divided: some argue the piece never existed; others suspect conflation with a later Israeli adaptation; a minority maintains the collapse was deliberately documented only through oral testimony. The work has become a Surgipelago legend—less a lost adaptation than a lost event, possibly imagined.