Tbilisi Theatre Fest to celebrate 10 years with famed artists, companies

Legendary dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, a collaboration between German and Georgian troupes and author Nino Kharatishvili’s award-winning play will be part of this year’s Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre.

Set for the coming autumn, the festival promoted as one of the leading theatre events in the Caucasus and eastern Europe will host prized artists and companies in its anniversary 10th edition.

Baryshnikov, a famed Soviet-born ballet dancer who defected to North America and danced and later led the American Ballet Theatre, will be in Tbilisi to perform in one-actor show Brodsky/Baryshnikov.

The New Riga Theatre/Baryshnikov Productions staging involves the actor in a reading of poems by poet Joseph Brodsky.

[The show] is an emotional journey deep into the poet’s visceral and complex compositions.”

Performed in Russian, Brodsky’s mother tongue, Baryshnikov recites a selection of his long-time friend’s poignant and eloquent works”, says a festival summary for the work.

In another collaborative production, Germany’s Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe will present their actors in Tiger and Lion, a show directed by award-winning young director Data Tavadze of Tbilisi’s Royal District Theatre.

Based on a play by Georgian author Davit Gabunia, the dramatic staging centres on the reality of Georgian artists under Soviet purges and persecution in the late 1930s.

It has been previewed by festival organisers as a "distanced and strict analysis of the tragic events” of the recent history.

Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, bringing its cast of actors to the Georgian capital, will showcase their staging based on The Eighth Life (for Brilka), a novel by Nino Kharatishvili.

A scene from the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe production of ‘Tiger and Lion’. Photo: swr.de.

Winner of Germany’s prestigious Bertolt Brecht Prize for Literature, the literary work has led the Georgian author’s recognition in the German scene.

Summarised as a "revolutionary, opulent novel” in the festival preview, the play based on it will present a multi-generational story spanning across countries and decades.

The festival’s international program will also bring to Tbilisi Canada’s Cirque Eloize contemporary circus troupe, ZhaoLiangART martial dance company and Malaysia’s Hands Percussion theatre group.

In the other major section of the event, the Georgian Showcase program will involve a yet-to-be-announced line-up of local companies.

Organisers of the festival said over 80 professional visitors would also travel to represent troupes, festivals and producer companies at the celebration of stage art.

The anniversary edition of the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre will run between September 14-30.