Hungarian National Theatre premiering director Avtandil Varsimashvili's 'Caucasian Chalk Circle'

The National Theatre in the Hungarian capital of Budapest is premiering Georgian director Avtandil Varsimashvili's Caucasian Chalk Circle, with the popular production's version at the venue featuring a cast of Hungarian actors in a bill closing today.

The 1837-founded venue in the city invited theatre-goers to the premiere show of the bill on Saturday, with the three-hour, 15-minute staging bringing the Georgian theatre director's work, based on a play by Bertolt Brecht, to its stage.

Its adaptation for the National Theatre was ensured following work by András Kozma, who used translations by Ágnes Nagy Nemes and Gábor Garai to produce the basis for the show where Hungarian theatre actors perform and music by late Georgian composer Giya Kancheli is heard.

Beside working as director for the production, Varsimashvili also contributed through set and costume design for the work, set by Brecht in Georgia during a civil war in the country and bringing together themes from Chinese mythology and the Bible.

Is tender love stronger than blood ties? Can justice be done between two kinds of maternal hearts? Brecht's popular play seeks answers to these painful moral questions

- National Theatre summary

It follows an interplay of personal connections where an abandoned child is brought up by a kind-hearted woman before a return of his biological mother sparks a dispute to be resolved with the use of an ancient folk test.

Varsimashvili, who leads Tbilisi's Griboedov State Theatre and is also Founder and Director of the city's Liberty Theatre, has made his own remarks on the plot, highlighting its commentary on the healing power of kindness for resolving loss and tragedy caused by war.

The theatre director has been recognised for his work with international prizes, including an award from the Ukrainian festival Melpomene of Tavria and the Grand Prix of the International Theatre Forum 'Golden Knight' for the production Kholstomer. The Story of a Horse.

Varsimashvili also received the 2015 Production of the Year Award in Georgia for The Government Inspector, a production based on a play by Nikolai Gogol.