Royal District Theatre to hold first shows in France

Tbilisi’s celebrated Royal District Theatre will bring some of its most acclaimed shows to audiences attending the troupe’s first-ever tour of France next week.

The Georgian company will travel to France’s northwestern coastal city of Cherbourg to hold performances of its award-winning play, Women of Troy and drama, Miss Julie.

The program will open on January 24 at the city’s Italian Theatre, with two more shows hosted at the Theatre de la Butte on January 26-27.

A scene from the play ‘Women of Troy’. Photo: Royal District Theatre.

Part of the Le Trident theatre group, the two venues will offer their space to the cast of Georgian actors featured in the two productions running with French subtitles.

Women of Troy was based by Royal District Theatre’s Data Tavadze on the 5th Century BC tragedy by Greek playwright Euripides.

The director of the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi situates his story in post-Soviet Georgia. An episode of the tragedy of Euripides springs to the heart of this documentary, echoing the armed struggles that devastated the region”, said a preview of the performance at Theatre de la Butte.

The drama ‘Miss Julie’ will be hosted at the Italian Theatre in Cherbourg. Photo: Royal District Theatre.

Tavadze received the main award of the Fast Forward 2016 European Festival for Young Stage Directors in Germany in recognition of his work on the production.

Women of Troy was also met with praise by theatre-goers and reviewers in Poland, where the troupe toured in 2015.

Performing arts review website Plays to See called the production a "stunningly beautiful” work exploring "the issue of women in wartime, in a thoughtful and hauntingly beautiful way”.

‘Miss Julie’ features a cast of Georgian actors of the Tbilisi company. Photo: Royal District Theatre.

Tavadze also worked as staging director of Miss Julie, creating the show after Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s 19th Century play.

Following a developing romance between the main character and her senior servant Jean in a count estate in Sweden, the play premiered on theatre stage in 1906. Tavadze’s redaction of the work has been presented by the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi in a number of recent performances.

A preview of the show in Cherbourg said the Georgian troupe’s performance of the drama underlined "the extreme singularity of [Strindberg’s] work” that "has lost none of its cruelty and effectiveness” since its first appearance two centuries ago.