New York Georgian Theatre to premiere award-winning play

A new theatre venue of the prominent Brooklyn Academy of Music will host the premiere of a brand-new production by the New York Georgian Theatre next month.

On june 4, the intimate Fishman Space location on Brooklyn will serve as the stage for the maiden performance of Clinical Marriage, a comedy featuring the Georgian troupe.

Based on an award-winning play by writer Irakli Samsonadze, the production is directed by the company co-founder Lika Sirelson.

The Fishman Space is the newest performance venue of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Photo: BAM.

Her staging will see a cast of Georgian actors present a story unfolding at a private clinic, where the appearance of a new patient upsets the established status quo of its owner.

The theatre company’s preview of the show said it would feature social and personal issues presented in scenarios "masterfully created” by the play’s author.

The theatrical value of Samsonadze play has been already recognised in Georgia, there the work was awarded First Prize of the Mikheil Tumanishvili Foundation competition The New Georgian Play in 2010. The competition was designed to reveal some of the most fascinating new works in the Georgian dramaturgy.

The theatrical adaptation of Clinical Marriage is produced by Victor Sirelson, with choreography by Irakli Shengelia and costume design by Maka Mikeladze.

It will premiere at the Fishman Space, one of four creative spaces at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Fisher venue. The BAM Fisher is one of the three locations of the academy — a prominent avant-garde artistic centre established at its current location in Brooklyn in 1908.

The Dancing Crane Company brings together a number of Georgian troupes including a children’s choreographic ensemble. Photo: Dancing Crane.

The New York Georgian Theatre was established in 2007 at the Dancing Crane Company, a New York-based Georgian culture centre.

Founded in 1996 Victor and Lika Sirelson, the centre is designed to promote Georgian culture and arts in New York.

Bringing together professionals of Georgian performing arts, Dancing Crane hosts performances by its dance and music ensembles, the theatre troupe and children’s choreographic company.

A school at the centre also hosts classes in Georgian dance, music and theatre performance.

Since its founding the New York Georgian Theatre has staged productions and theatre shows based on plays by celebrated Georgian authors including Nodar Dumbadze and Otia Ioseliani.

The company featured at the 2011 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York and also performed for theatre-goers in Canada in 2014 and 2016.