Georgian Theatre Showcase, days one and two

A 9:30am start for the morning meeting in the Sheraton Metechi Palace might have seemed optimistic given that many international visitors arrived in the middle of the night, but adrenalin and excitement seemed to get most people there and they were well rewarded.



Fifty producers, directors and promoters from all over the world gathered to see a selection theatre from some of the best companies in Georgia. 27 different shows were to be presented from theatres in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi and Telavi as well as refugee companies from Tskhinvali and Sukhumi and all were represented in the lively trade show on the tenth floor of the hotel. To me, this represented a real ‘coming of age’ for Georgian theatre; never before in my eleven years visiting Tbilisi have I seen such a cooperative atmosphere among theatres. Of course, everybody was trying to attract attention to their own stand but that didn’t stop them helping each other with translation, with introductions and with mutual support. Each day of the showcase began with the morning meeting and it was a bustle of activity, a perfect way to start a busy day.



Of course, with 27 shows to see over just four days, it was impossible to see everything and choices had to be made. What follows are my choices plus, where appropriate, comments from other people on the shows I didn’t see.



I gave the Pantomime Theatre a miss, having seen the company before, not least, earlier that week celebrating the vine at a grape-picking festival. Most of the talk afterwards was not so much about the show but, sadly, about the impromptu extra demonstration that went badly wrong technically. A lesson there – if you’re going to be impromptu, make sure you’ve rehearsed it!
 The afternoon gave a choice of three shows – a mime performance from the Children’s Theatre, The Children of Others by David Gabunia at the Royal District and Faust, a revival of Levan Tsuladze’s Basement Theatre puppet show.


The Children of Others I saw on my last visit to Tbilisi. It was commissioned from the winner of the ARDIfest new writing competition. David Gabunia shows a great degree of imagination and maturity beyond his years in this futuristic vision of a life where procreation is achieved through body parts being created in a number of separate people both male and female, rendering differences between the sexes irrelevant. Directed with great restraint by Data Tavadze and performed with immaculate discipline by the young cast, this is clearly a group to watch.



My own choice was Faust, a production I first saw shortly after its premiere in 2000. The show has been out of the repertoire for some time and this revival has completely new puppets by Nino Namicheishvili. It has lost none of its charm and remains one of my favourite shows of all time. The performance was dedicated to the memory of Goga Khechinashvili, one of the show’s original puppeteers whose untimely death removed the show from the repertoire.



Lighter work followed with the Budrugana Hand Shadows Theatre. It was amazingly talented and clever but ultimately, for a grown-up, a bit repetitive; children were entranced and they were the intended audience so chalk that up as a hit.

The big show for the first day was Robert Sturua’s new production of Biedermann and the Fire Raisers by Max Frisch at the Rustaveli Theatre (pictured right). Any new production by Sturua is a must-see event but this disappointed. This is a powerful play with a strong political message, especially in the current climate; why does Biedermann invite into his house those he knows will cause its downfall – even to the point of giving them the matches to start the inevitable fire? Sturua gives the whole a circus atmosphere but the tricks ultimately overpower the play and it starts on such a heightened plane that the production has nowhere to go.


Day two began with back-to-back puppet shows, sort of. Beso Kupreishvili’s Fingers Theatre doesn’t use puppets so much as make the actors hands into puppets. Against a background of popular music his six actors use fingers, hands, masks and bodies to present a moving tale of love and the barriers that try to come in its way. Enormous fun and surprisingly moving, it was a joyous and uplifting hour.


The Lady With a Dog showed how far Levan Tsuladze has come since his Faust ten years ago. Using the same group of puppeteers, puppets again made by Nino Namicheishvili, this is a far more developed production with both live actors and puppets sharing the same stage. Based on Chekhov’s short story, told in flashback, it tells of a love affair between Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov (Nika Tavadze) and the married Anna Sergeevna (Nana Kalatozishvili) in the seaside town of Yalta. The puppets represent the actors themselves with some sequences told by live actors, some by puppets and on occasion the actors confronted by their own puppets. What is real? What is imagined? What is memory? By moving beyond the confines of the puppeteers’ tabletop this production allows the both large scale actors’ world and small-scale puppet world to coincide. Specially composed music by Vakhtang Kakhidze adds to the atmosphere of a most beautiful, understated production that will surely remain in the repertoire for many years to come.


Clashes again for the late afternoon, so I ducked out altogether to wait for the evening performance of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano at the Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre. Due to a little local difficulty the Tumanishvili was not going to be a part of the festival so it was good to see them taking their place alongside all the other theatres. An absurdist play in which nobody appears to listen to each other is a bit of a challenge when you don’t understand the language, or then again maybe that helps! What did stand out was the quality of the acting.

The other evening choices were Dosoevski.ru at the Griboedov Russian language theatre; Anna Karenina, adapted by Giorgi Sikharulidze from the Kutaisi Theatre and My Friend Hitler by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima at the Royal District. Some visitors chose to catch a small bit of two or three performances. The Anna Karenina was judged very successful, although at four hours a bit of a challenge, and Dostoevski.ru was ‘interesting’. My Friend Hitler I had seen before, finally catching up with it in May after a few years missing it. It was well worth the wait, especially for the performance of Nato Murvanidze (one of Georgia’s leading actresses) as Hitler. The play opens with Hitler giving a speech in the background and while he rants, others including Ernst Roehm, juggle for position and power. I had quibbles about historical accuracy – it annoyed me that Murvanidze smoked whereas Hitler was known as a fanatical non-smoker – but they pale into insignificance against a chilling portrayal of power.



Half way through the showcase and energy levels are clearly beginning to flag. Few people turned up for the supra (Georgian feast) that evening but perhaps that’s understandable since it wasn’t due to start until midnight. The previous evening’s supra had been a magnificent affair with unlimited food and wine and a magnificent floorshow of traditional polyphonic singing and breathtaking displays of dancing. Adrenalin can only take you so far, eventually you have to sleep.


More thoughts will follow in the next posting.