Other Voices, Other… Stages: Contemporary Georgian Playwriting in the Twenty-First Century

Lela Ochiauri

The history of Georgian theatres begins centuries, or even millennia, earlier than the history of Georgian playwriting; as a rule, the opposite is the case, or theatre and playwriting develop simultaneously.  Georgian theatre history starts in Pre-Antiquity and develops from Antiquity, with excavated archaeological findings dating as far back as the 12th century BC. The existence and translation of fiction (the first preserved sample of which dates to the 5th century AD) and the existence of the theatre itself does not, in all likelihood, exclude the existence of dramaturgical texts, too. The first Georgian dramaturgical miniature, authored by Iase Mikadze, was presented in 1761 at King Erekle’s Palace Theatre. A dramaturgical work by the female poet Manana, Conversation of Fever and the Woman, dates from the same period and is based on improvised verses between two characters. Since then, the Georgian theatre has “died” and been resurrected several times. On January 14, 1850, at the initiative of Georgian public figures under the leadership of dramatist, director and actor Giorgi Eristavi, Eristavi’s comedy Divorce was shown in the newly revived professional theatre (which adopted the romantic-heroic style of the European realist theatre of that period); this production is understood to represent a renewal and is also considered the “birthday” of Georgian playwriting.

In the Soviet era, the theatre had a special ideological significance. It was a means of propaganda and was subject to censorship, precisely because of its popularity and publicity. Many “playwrights” appeared during this period. Demand regulated the market, or, on the contrary, many plays were written and staged for purposes of propaganda and promotion. There were also a few playwrights who can be diminished neither by time nor censorship and remain enthusiastically staged by directors to this day.  The early twentieth-century playwrights Avksenti Tsagareli, Davit Kldiashvili, Grigol Robakidze, Vazha-Pshavela, Polikarpe Kakabadze, Shalva Dadiani and Niko Lortkipanidze are regarded as the “classics” of Georgian dramaturgy.

The senior generation of Georgian playwrights includes the brothers Tamaz (1931-2018) and Otar (1930-2009) Chiladze, Nodar Dumbadze (1928-1984) and Guram Batiashvili (1938). The subsequent generation includes Rezo Kldiashvili (1947), Irakli Samsonadze (1961), Tamaz Badzaghua (1959-1987), Mamuka Salukvadze (1955-1997), Shadiman Shamanadze (1958), Tamar Bartaia (1959), Dato Turashvili (1966), Aleksandre Kokrashvili (1955), Mikho Mosulishvili (1962), Tamri Pkhakadze  (1957), Irakli Kakabadze (1969), Zurab Papiashvili (1978),  Basa Janikashvili (1974), Lasha Bugadze (1977),  Manana Doiashvili (1974), Nestan Kvinikadze (1980), Maka Kukulava (1980),  also a translator), Nino Sadghobelashvili (1980) and the actor and director Otar Katamadze (1983). The youngest generation is represented by Aleks Chigvinadze (1986), director and playwright Davit Khorbaladze (1993) and Marita Liparteliani (2003), whose debut play Tercet (2024) was included in Heidelberg’s Stückemarkt in 2024, along with director and playwright Paata Tsikolia’s (1976) Medea. E01S06 (2021), philosopher Giorgi Maisuradze’s (1970) Twins (2018) and director and playwright Davit Khorbaladze’s White Dog (2024).

With several generations of playwrights active in today’s Georgian theatre, social, public, political, religious, personal and local issues, as well as more general, eternal problems are depicted with sharp lines. Among contemporary works, Data Tavadze and Davit Gabunia’s research-based plays/performances, such as Trojan Women and Prometheus – 25 Years of Independence, stand out. Trojan Women is a tragedy about the women victims of the ongoing war(s) in Georgia’s Abkhazia (the Abkhazian war took place in 1992-1993, as a result of which Georgia temporarily lost this historical corner of the country). The play combines concrete, unforgettable stories directly experienced by real people with the universal human problems of war, violence and femicide. The play contains peculiar passages and lines from Euripides’ Trojan Women, which are integrated and interpreted alongside the stories of modern women. Such interpretation of ancient myths, references to classical fiction and new readings of texts are characteristic of modern Georgian dramaturgy. The duo’s Prometheus – 25 Years of Independence (2016)  traces the 25-year history of Georgia’s independence (Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990) and the memories, worldview and essence of the people born during this period and – like the playwright, director and actors participating in the production – aged 25 at the time of the play’s writing. Like Trojan Women and Khorbaladze and Charkviani’s Dead Cities (see below), the play was written specifically for this production and was changed and updated during the rehearsal process.

Other significant works include Davit Gabunia’s Children of Others, Soap Opus, Poorman, Holland Holland, and Several Aggravating Circumstances, along with My Name is Lily and Zipo by Paata Tsikolia. Tsikolia also co-authored Aiik: and Medea E01S06 with Otar Katamadze, the author of Balcony.

In his Soap Opus (2008)  and Children of Others (2008), Gabunia creates alternative worlds about Nazism, minorities, totalitarianism, persecution and unacceptability, transforming events into a pseudo-classical form. There are similar “criminal chronicles” in his Several Aggravating Circumstances (2012) where, as a result of war and violence, the characters lose their humanity and experience an existential crisis. The play depicts a society that sooner or later will have to bear legal or moral responsibility for the crimes committed, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Tsikolia’s My Name is Lily and Zipo are monodramas about women who are victims of violence and social conditions; alone, they confront obstacles and fight in vain for survival.

Alex Chigvinadze (Olympic Games, Marina Revia, View from Hotel Georgia, Invertebrate, Are They Banging on Your Door, Too?) is another important voice.  The war in Abkhazia and the sad and hopeful story of people living in exile is the main theme of his View from the Hotel Georgia (2020). Once one of the most luxurious hotels in Tbilisi, the Hotel Georgia has become a refuge for Internally Displaced Persons. The playwright creates a microcosm, a model of people whose lives have been destroyed by the war and the loss of their native land and for whom love, patience and hope remain the most important things. In Marina Revia (2018), a young woman takes on the involuntary crime committed by her children and returns home after ten years of imprisonment to find no one waiting for her, a victim of injustice and alienation.

The work of Davit Khorbaladze (the author of Thirst, Disturbance, Parents’ Meeting, Father Hangs Himself in the Forest and UNLOVE) is also significant, as is his collaboration with the director Mikheil Charkviani on works such as Dead Cities, a desperate cry from the dead and vanished cities, countries and societies that are being damaged and destroyed politically and economically with violent opposition from the state, such that they continue to exist physically while suffering moral ruin. The play is built on the stories of those who have experienced severe loneliness, abandonment, internal and external emigration and the threat of eventual disappearance.

Lasha Bughadze, the most frequently performed Georgian playwright, is the author of plays such as Navigator, 7PP, Nugzari and Mephistopheles, Antimedea, Lysistrata and Naphtalin. His plays are sharp, varied, multifaceted satires on modern reality. Full of dynamic development and cutting, lively humour, his plays are about modern people, even if these contemporaries include Queen Tamar, Medea, Lysistrata, Stalin and Mephistopheles. His works are characterised by parables, metaphorical thinking, social and political incisiveness and smoothness of narrative, which draws directors like a strong magnet.

Other notable works include Big Break and Sweet House by Data Pirtskhalava, Dagni, by Lile Shengelia, Angry Bird and Playing War by Basa Janikashvili, Tamar Bartaia’s The Basement in Gori and The Toy Pistol, and Tamri Pkhakadze’s Vegetable Garden in the Conflict Zone. Janikashvili’s Angry Bird (winner of the Playwrights’ European Competition Award 2014)  is a modern Romeo and Juliet story about a Christian and Muslim couple whose love is hindered by religious conflict and incompatible traditions; it ends with a protest and a victory for “angry youth.”

A Georgian director, writer and playwright and the laureate of many competitions, Nino Kharatishvili lives in Germany and is recognised as an outstanding writer at home and abroad. Her plays Liv Stein (2009), Autumn of Servants (2021), Phaedra in the Flame (2022), Zhuzha (2010) and others have been staged in Georgia and Germany; she sometimes stages her plays herself. Autumn of Servants is a microcosm of society and the women who, surrounded by war, become both victims and perpetrators. Phaedra in the Flame offers a postmodern interpretation of a famous myth, again dealing with violence, discrimination against women, freedom and the difficult processes of personal rehabilitation. The Eighth Life to Brilka (2019) is a family saga that spans many decades, through which chronicles and historical reality run as a continuous line, expanding from the history of 20th-century Georgia to the history of the world.

Works by Georgian playwrights move from one stage to another, but rarely go outside the country. There are only a few such cases. In 2015, Data Tavadze, one of the leading Georgian theatre directors and the leading director of the Royal District Theatre, premiered Mother War (2013), a play frequently performed in Georgia, at the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre, in Zittau, Germany. Davit Gabunia’s play The Tiger and the Lion (2018) was produced at the State Theatre in Karlsruhe; his Night Guest was staged at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. Lasha Bugadze’s Navigator (2011) was awarded the grand prize at the 2011 BBC International Playwriting Competition; a reading of his play The President Came as a Guest (2013) was organised at the Royal Court in London. Otar Katamadze’s play Call it What You Want (2018) was presented at the Deutsches Theater in Germany and My Bush Theatre in Ukraine. Tamar Bartaia’s monodrama The Dress (2013) was staged by British director Hilary Wood at Tumanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi, with a tour also organised in the UK.

In Georgian theatres, works by Georgian playwrights are often staged by guest international directors.

For example,  2+2=2 (2018) by Irakli Kakabadze was directed by the Brazilian director Rodrigo Fisher at Akhmeteli Theatre. Polish director Dariusz Ezerski worked in several Georgian theatres and Jacek Glomb from Poland staged Ezhi Pilkhi’s As Many Demons as You Want, at the Batumi Drama Theatre. In Search of the Lost (2023) was presented in the New Theatre and directed by Ukrainian Vlad Troitsky; based on Basa Janikashvili’s play, it deals with the harrowing realities of the wars in Ukraine, Abkhazia and Samachablo.

The main topics in contemporary Georgian playwriting and dramaturgy include religious intolerance and confrontation, the persecution of religious and sexual minorities and experiences related to war (past and ongoing) and loss – ruined lives in ruined cities. A new Georgian theatre is currently being created through new dramaturgies and the “revision” of older, tried and tested, models and interpretations. The search is on for new action and innovation.