Tbilisi hosts Latvian Theatre charity performance

Tbilisi is hosting charity performances by renowned Latvian theatre company New Riga Theatre.

This is the first time the ensemble, led by famous director Alvis Hermanis, has performed in Georgia’s capital.

Today is the final day contemporary theatre enthusiasts can attend Hermanis’ famous play Long Life at the Tbilisi Griboedov State Drama Theatre, in Tbilisi.

This is a charity performance and money from ticket sales will be donated to Georgia’s Solidarity Fund, which supports children with cancer.

The wordless play is about five elderly people who live in a communal apartment in Riga, Latvia. They are considered losers of the great upheavals of the last century.

Meanwhile Editor of German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel Christina Tilmann described Hermanis’ directing talents as among the best in the world.

"No wonder that Alvis Hermanis and his New Riga Theatre is regarded as one of the hottest discoveries of European theater scene. His theater is easily transposable, works without words are evident everywhere,” she said.

"What you see awaits us all. Not only because it is worth a closer look. Not everything is terrible, and even the most obvious losers can turn their situation [into] humor and love of life,” she wrote.

Hermanis has led the New Riga Theatre, a contemporary repertory theater in the central city, since 1997.

Long Life has already been performed in more than 40 different theaters by the troupe who have toured throughout Europe Singapore, Colombia, South Korea and Canada.

The showing of the play in Tbilisi was organised by the Latvian Embassy in Georgia with cooperation of the Tbilisi City Cultural Events Centre.