Data Tavadze to premiere Anna Seghers novel at Staatsschauspiel Dresden theatre

A story of people in the turmoil of the Nazi occupation of France will premiere on the stage of Staatsschauspiel Dresden theatre this November through a staging by award-winning Georgian director Data Tavadze.

Transit, based on a novel by famed German author Anna Seghers, will narrate a stage version of the story of a narrator in the literary work who is on a run after escaping a concentration camp following the 1940 German invasion of France.

The protagonist is entangled in developments following his assumption of the identity of a dead writer and falling in love with the latter’s estranged wife in Marseille.

[W]e are moving on to Staatschauspiel Dresden to start rehearsals of [Transit —] a true masterpiece by Anna Seghers,” Tavadzer told his social media followers last week.

Tavadze led a premiere of ‘It’s Dark and She Doesn’t Know There are Others In the Room’, his latest staging, at the newly concluded New Drama Festival in Tbilisi this month. Photo: Data Tavadze on Facebook.

Seghers transforms [...] a realistic scenario into a claustrophobic Kafka world and describes with crystal clear language the inhuman state of transit, which is currently bitter reality for millions of people,” a preview from the Staatsschauspiel said.

Premiering in a version by Julia Weinreich, the production will also feature music by Georgian composer Nika Pasuri, who has been involved with Tavadze in recent collaborations. Set design for the work will come from Kathrin Frosch, with costumes from Julia Plickat and lighting by N. N.

The roster for the show is set to involve theatre, film and TV actor Henriette Hölzel and Erich Ponto Prize-winning performers Moritz Kienemann and Ahmad Mesgarha.

The staging will see Tavadze eunite with the Dresden theatre following the staging of Love and Intrigue in February, with music by Pasuri, sets by Thilo Reuther and costumes by designer Irène Favre de Lucascaz.

The Georgian has been theatre director at the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi, Georgia since 2008 and is a winner of the Fast Forward - European Festival for Young Stage Directors Award. He received the prize in 2016 for his production Women of Troy, first staged at the Tbilisi theatre.

Most recently Tavadze premiered his latest work It’s Dark and She Doesn’t Know There are Others In the Room at the New Drama Festival in Tbilisi that came to a close on Sunday.

The Dresden theatre will host the premiere of Transit on November 8.