June 19

Omsk State Academic Drama Theatre

Maxim Gorky. "ENEMIES"

Director: George Tskhvirava

DIRECTOR:

GEORGY TSKHVIRAVA is a theatre director of Omsk State Academic Drama Theatre, artistic director of the IV International Theatre Festival "ACADEMIA", manager of the Laboratory of modern drama in Omsk State Academic Drama Theatre.

In 1978 he graduated from Moscow State Art and Cultural University. In 1985 he graduated from the directing department of the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts /GITIS (M.O. Knebel’s course). Since 1985 till 1990 worked as a director in Omsk State Academic Drama Theatre, where successfully debuted with a famous play "Japanese coat of parachute silk is for sale" by A. Malukova. 20 years later, in March, 2009 he has returned here to work as a theatre director. Before that, since 1991 till 1996 he worked as a theatre director in Sverdlovsk Youth Theatre (Yekaterinburg). Since 2000 till 2005 he also worked as a theatre director in Kazan Youth Theatre. He is rather famous director who has staged plays in different theatres from Khabarovsk to Yaroslavl: "Red Torch" State Theatre (Novosibirsk), Tatar National Academic Theatre, Saratov Academic Youth Theatre, the State Dramatic Theatre on Liteiny Prospect and the Bryantsev Youth Theatre (St. Petersburg) and others. A number of his plays caused public outcry and received high accolade from professional association; especially "The Seagull" by A. Chekhov staged in Sverdlovsk Youth Theatre has been recognized as the brightest performance of the XX century. "The Lower Depths" by M. Gorky (staged in Omsk State Academic Drama Theatre) was nominated on the "Golden Mask" Award in 2003. He also staged "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead" by T. Stoppard (Kazan Youth Theatre), "OblomOFF" by M. Ugarov (Voronezh Chamber Theatre) and many others. His plays are constant participants of prestigious Russian and international festivals in Sweden, Germany, Poland, China, Greece, Switzerland, France, Japan and the U.S.A.

Over the last years he has produced some famous plays in Omsk Drama which demonstrated the brightest features of his creative manner – fidelity of original plays and harmony with surrounding life.

PERFORMANCE:

Omsk Drama has been able to rehabilitate Gorky’s play by revealing all the deepness of the play’s conflict (numerous conflicts) going far beyond the concrete historical situation of the first Russian revolution.

In both hard and extremely inventive performance of George Tskhvirava some of mutually exclusive philosophies of life run the show "sound and fury" - such views on the country, its social structure, on the people inhabiting it, that these philosophies are dramatically unable to come to any consensus.

Three short acts are quite ruthless towards all its characters. The play is similar to three rounds of the straight – out boxing match in which unfortunately or fortunately the winner can not be revealed. But the fascinating passions don’t give you time to recover. And it seems that everything in our inescapably difficult "sporting life" allows us to understand. Alexander Vislov.