Georgian Theatre Showcase days 3 and 4

Day three began with another forced choice. Happily I’d seen The Sea Which is Far before so my choice was easy – The Landscape Lacks Warmth by Tamar Bartaia. I first came across Bartaia with an early play of hers, The Mirror, presented as part of an evening with four short plays at the Royal District. Her work has been seen in England (Hilary Wood directed The Dress in 2007) and The Landscape Lacks Warmth itself is due to be seen in England in the autumn. This latest play concerns an artist, Nutsa, who is about to discover that her husband has been having an affair with their nanny. Her relative lack of concern at the news changes when she realises how long it’s been going on and that it has resulted in the birth of twins. The play explores attitudes to love in a modern society where self interest scores over concern for others; a landscape that is without warmth.

The Sea Which is Far by Guram Odisharia also explores love and friendship, in this case between a Georgian and an Abkhazian. The Georgian returns to Sukhumi after the war to find his childhood friend but their friendship is in the past and each now has a different view of life; they cannot understand each other, no matter how much they may wish to. What makes this play so poignant is that it is performed by Georgian refugees from that very war. There are over a quarter of a million refugees in Tbilisi and the surrounding area.

I missed a play which was adjudged one of the hits of the festival. The Bedstead of Ex-Lovers by Irakli Samsonadze at the Rustaveli Theatre was set in a railway wagon with two people, apparent strangers, who discover a past acquaintance and their relationship grows during the journey. Eventually they realise that the containers in the wagon are bearing their own dead remains back to Georgia where their spouses, waiting to receive the bodies, have been having an affair. I must make sure I see this production next time I’m in Tbilisi but, to judge from the response, there will be many that hope the production comes to the UK before that.

The Visitor by Eric-Emmanuel Schmidt, also at the Rustaveli, is set in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss. Sigmund Freud refuses to leave but then his daughter is arrested by the Gestapo and a mysterious visitor arrives with some advice. I have no idea what the advice was – there was no synopsis or translation – but it was an engaging performance nonetheless and Bacho Chachibaia gave an excellent performance as Freud. My only gripe was that the Gestapo officer appeared more like a jovial uncle; I like my monsters to be menacing.

The Visitor overlapped the start of the Caucasian Chalk Circle so I missed what colleagues described as an excellent performance directed by Avto Varsmashvili at the Liberty Theatre made particularly memorable by seeing it in the Caucasus.

The last day included a trip out of town to the Rustavi Municipal Theatre. Rustavi is one of Georgia’s oldest towns although it was heavily developed after the war as a steel town. The old town centre revealed itself as a haven of charm among the dreary post war architecture and the theatre a delight, although in need of some urgent restoration. Darispan’s Trouble by David Kldiashvili, a leading Georgian playwright from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is set in an Imeretian village. Two sets of parents try to marry off their daughters to the same good catch, only to discover he’s already promised. It’s a lively comedy and Gocha Kapanadze’s production recognised the historical nature of the piece whilst also bringing out the pathos of the situation. At the end a television camera was thrust into my face ‘Did I find the production sad?’ Well, yes in a way; I really felt for the two girls being dragged around the countryside while adults tried to find them a match. I’m sure that left to their own devices they’d have done fine.

While I was in Rustavi others were seeing a production by the Tskhinvali State Drama Theatre, again in exile at the National Music Centre. I hope they can go home soon. I’ll try to see their show next time I’m in Tbilisi.

A meeting with the Minister of Culture meant that I missed the other shows of the afternoon and I only saw a short part of Creasy Ones 2, described as dramatic circus, before heading to the Music and Comedy Theatre for the much anticipated premiere of David Doiashvili’s Macbeth.

   Three Witches

Getting a buzz going about a show is difficult at the best of times but during a festival with so much on offer and when nobody has seen your show takes some doing. Hats off then to the team from the Music and Drama Theatre; I have rarely experienced such eager anticipation. It was not misplaced. This was a stunning performance.

The Music and Drama Theatre was largely destroyed by fire and the stage and auditorium is no more than a burnt out shell, so performances take place now in what was once the foyer. Clearly, it was a grand theatre because the foyer itself can now hold an open stage and an audience on two levels. For this production Doiashvili dispensed with the lower level and built the stage up to the height of the ‘circle’ so the front row was on a level with the stage, separated by a chasm of some seven metres depth and about five metres width. The staging was truly spectacular and at times terrifying with images I’ll never forget. From the opening this was clearly going to be a different production: the witches were omnipresent and appeared from nowhere; Duncan, so often an almost kindly old gent, is revealed as a monstrous tyrant who tortures his own lieutenants and family for pleasure (and when you think about it, he’d have to be a bit of a tyrant to retain the crown in those times); brutality is everywhere. But the real credit has to go to Lord and Lady Macbeth. Tornike Gogrichiani, still a third-year student at the Rustaveli Theatre University, gave a commanding performance and Nana Kalatozishvili (pictured), such a cool and controlled performance of repressed passion in Lady With a Dog, lets passion rip in this production. The two of them, like some medieval Bonny and Clyde, cling to each other in death at the end, hanging precariously on a stage that has tilted to an angle of 45degrees with a sheer drop to the ground some twenty feet below .

The party at the end of the showcase was also the party for the first night of Macbeth and what a fitting end. It also marked my third meeting with the Minister of Culture, who came along for the party although he couldn’t make the show. Afterwards we all repaired to a jazz café until the early hours. Why can’t we have a minister like that?

1st night/ last night party

Picture shows Minister of Culture (left front) David Doiashvili (3rd left) Levan Tsuladze (centre right)

Meanwhile, the international festival continued with a production by UK company Gecko with their take on Gogol’s the Overcoat. More of that anon.