Tbilisi university students win Bulgarian prize with director Data Tavadze’s play
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A theatre play staged by acclaimed young director Data Tavadze and featuring students of Tbilisi’s principal theatre university was distinguished with a major prize at the International Student Theatre Festival on Saturday.
Faces, a production based on short stories by Nobel Prize laureate Yasunari Kawabata, claimed the Best Company award at the Bulgarian theatre event.
It was presented at the UNESCO-supported event by students of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University.
[Faces is a] minimalistic, extremely emotional performance which preserves the delicacy of [Kawabata’s] ‘Palm-of-the-Hand Stories’.
The performance tells us about our ephemerality in time and how problematic it is for the human being, about loneliness, love and death”, said a summary of the play from the festival.
The staging is a co-production between the Shota Rustaveli university and Tbilisi’s Royal District Theatre, where Tavadze works.
It was part of the festival — named after actor Danail Chirpansky — alongside six other productions from companies including the National Theatre of Greece Drama School, High School of Dramatic Arts of Madrid and the Russian University for Theatre Arts.
The Best Company prize received by ‘Faces’ at the festival. Photo: Royal District Theatre.
Tavadze’s staging features Shota Rustaveli university students Natalia Gabisonia and Nika Gogidze in principal roles.
The award marks the latest international success for Tavadze, who was honoured with the main award of the Fast Forward European Festival for Young Stage Directors in Germany last year.
Born in 1989, Tavadze joined the Royal District Theatre in 2008 and has staged celebrated productions including Women of Troy and Miss Julie.
The International Student Theatre Festival is supported by UNESCO’s International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.