Young Georgian Director of Royal District Theatre
By Mariam Chanishvili
Friday, March 16
Data Tavadze is starting a new project in Germany - co-production of Karlsruhe Theatre and Royal District Theatre (RDT).
The play “Tiger and Lion” will be directed by Data Tavadze, who will be working with 6 German actors of Karlsruhe Theatre. The text was devised by Davit Gabunia and Data Tavadze.
Staatstheater Karlsruhe is one of the biggest multi-section theatres of the world.
In 1937, more than 100 Georgian artists and intellectuals were eliminated and exiled according to orders of Stalin, organized by his Georgian leader Beria. A large number of directors, theater directors, world-famous musicians, authors disappeared and died during the Soviet regime, including Paolo Iashvili, who was forced to commit suicide in the Writers’ House in Tbilisi. There you can still see the stuffed Tiger and the Lion, who were silent witnesses of this tragedy.
The play will highlight issues of responsibility of witnesses and their choice between silence and action.
While discussing 2018 plans with the Messenger, Tavadze said he will be directing a one-hour lecture-performance – documentary monologue based on an interview with the war veteran from Abkhazia.
The play will be staged in Berlin - Maxim Gorki Theatre, during the festival in October, 2018 dedicated to First World War centenary. The main topic of the festival will be post war period.
Various plays directed by Tavadze have been staged internationally.
Royal District Theatre has been on tours to Belgium, Poland, Romania, Germany, Moldova, Armenia, France, Sweden, etc.
Data Tavadze received the main award of the Fast Forward 2016 European Festival for Young Stage Directors, which was held from November 24-27 in Braunschweig in central Germany, for the play - Women of Troy.
The main prize of the German festival included an opportunity for the director to stage a play at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden Theatre in East Germany.
Starting from December 2018, Tavadze will start directing the play written by the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller – “Intrigue and Love”.
The premiere will be held in February 2019 in Staatsschauspiel Dresden Theatre.
Founded in 1997 by Georgian actress Iza Gigoshvili, Royal District Theatre (RDT) has been supporting innovative and free theatrical experiments, popularization of new plays and widening the perspective of Georgian theatre. Since 2008, a young group has been active at RDT and made the theatre popular abroad with its innovative forms and acutely up-to-date performances.
RDT is also active in the educational field, hosting Center for Development of Contemporary Theatre – Temur Chkheidze Studio, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.
The theatre actively collaborates with Gothenburg Academy for Music and Drama (Sweden), arranges public lectures, professional seminars, workshops for Georgian and international students.
