Five Uneasy Anti-Utopian Pieces for the Festival
By Davit Bukhrikidze
...at the cusp of September, when the national-creative utopia will be graciously done (or to translate it into the language of theater, both the guests and the hosts of the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre 2023 will rivet and engross the Georgian program), the anniversary and international phase of "anti-utopia" will begin: this year, the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre celebrates its 15 years.
The title of Bob Rafelson's famous film "Five Easy Pieces" is simply a good reason to fit the visual spectacles of this year's festival to the scenic variety and contrast, and to the program presented by five international projects – an uneasy, but politically correct aesthetic train. Whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, this train will follow this year's program as well, because firstly – even a cynical adjustment to war does not mean forgetting it, and secondly – in any case, we cannot live in isolation from the world!
Therefore, in the presented plays we will have to see war and peace, the major and minor all at the same time. However, it will be a useful and spectacular labor, because we will see what we previously could not notice and feel what we missed before. Otherwise, there is always something at the festival that may be important and one might not catch it...
From the five plays that are included in the international program this year, each and every one has its own secret. Their revelations are not only in the hands of directors and actors, but also depend on your unbridled imagination or socio-cultural genesis.
Do you wish to look boldly and directly at political events? Then the Belgian theater company "Cie QUE FAIRE?” and its founder, the journalist and director, Sébastien Foucault, will show you the brutality of documentary reality in the play "War Reporters". In the 90s of the XX century, together with hundreds of journalists, the director went to the countries of former Yugoslavia to cover the news. But what is the journalists’ gaze and how does it differ from the narrative of those directly involved in the war? Where and how do these immediate, emotional and live human texts get lost in the chronicles of reporters? That is the question…
Or you can aim for the performance by Timofey Kulyabin, an artist exiled from Russia, probably the most active and interesting directors of the time. Nowadays the director’s reputation in Western theaters is incredibly good. At the Tbilisi festival, the Latvian theater "Dailes” will present the performance "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" based on the play by the famous French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès. Kulyabin turned Koltès’ existential drama into an echo of the loneliness of two great actors, John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite. Which means a lot more to the audiences than just attending a "celebration of solitude" of great performers.
The Polish director with a rather cinematic name – Lukasz Twarkowski, through the “STUDIO theatregallery”, will introduce the problem of creating artificial intelligence to theatergoers who are passionate about technology. Because the issue of the relationship between humans and extraterrestrial beings has not yet been raised so acutely and in such a technological context. It is interesting how the audience will be able to simultaneously observe an alien and a human being in the play.
For those who still find the stories of planets unattainable and who prefer to see earthly feelings told through the fiery language of dance theater, choreographer-directors Pep Ramis and María Muñoz (Spain) will try to convince them of this truth with the performance "Inventions". A live string quartet, vocals, cello music by Bach and lyrics by Nick Cave are a wonderful reason to see it. Especially when "Inventions" is not only a dance, but also a kind of performance-trip on the rivalry or duel of sound and image.
We will finish this year's not-so-short international "theatrical anti-utopia" with Nino Haratischwili’s German production "Why the Child Cooks in the Polenta" (Hessisches Landestheater Marburg (HLTM), text by Aglaja Veteranyi). This is a Georgian-German performance, and the Georgian cast is: Nata Murvanidze, Baia Dvalishvili, and Anano Makharadze. It seems that the circus performers have some really special children who go through a difficult life test every day. This will become useful to them in the future... It is interesting how Nino Haratischwili will continue her simultaneous directorial journey in Georgian and German theaters; or how her work changed after the multi-layered drama of “Phaedra”...