The Lower Depths

Maxim Gorky

Vaso Abashidze Music and Drama State Theatre, Tbilisi, Georgia

Director: David Doiashvili

With Hungarian subtitles

2 hours 50 minutes with 1 breaks.

The title of this play, which has become the most frequently-performed composition for the stage by Maxim Gorky, makes it very clear that this is a drama about the fates, longings, and disappointments of people who have sunk into destitution and despair. The play deals with questions that are both philosophical and social. As Gorky himself writes, “what is better – truth or compassion? What is more important? Can compassion turn into a lie? This question is more philosophical than subjective.” Each of the characters in the play has a distinctive past that is different from the pasts of the various other characters, yet at the same time they all share both the present and the future, a future barren of hope. They have no faith, no creed. They do not believe that their lives will ever take a turn for the better. They do not believe in themselves or their own abilities to do anything to alter their fates. They prefer simply to turn away from the truth and take refuge in illusions, giving up, in doing so, on their very existences.

The problems that arise in The Lower Depths and the questions that Gorky raises remain pertinent, even pressing today. It is hardly surprising that the play is performed frequently. In this production, Georgian director David Doiashvili offers his audiences a completely new contemporary reading of the play, rich with a suggestive poetic quality.

Színészek/Actors: Zaal Chikobava, Nana Butkhuzi, Ana Tsereleli, Tato Chakhunashvili, Tornike Gigrichiani, Aleksandre Begalishvili, Buba Gogorishvili, Nanka Kalatozishvili, Eka Demetradze, Shako Mirianashvili, Archil Sologhashvili, David Beshitaishvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Goga Gvelesiani, Gigi Karseladze, Giorgi Bakutashvili

Zene/Music: Nikoloz Racsveli/Nikoloz Rachveli, Díszlet/Stage design – Giorgi Ustiasvili, Jelmez/Costumes – Ana Mosidze, Koreográfia/Choreography – Konstantin Purtseladze, Fotó installáció/Photo installation - Gogiko Sakvarelidze, Fény/Lighting – Ia Nadriashvili, Hang/Sound: - Beka Maglakelidze

Director

David Doiashvili

Gobbi Hilda Stage

David Doiashvili

Born in 1971 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, David Doiashvili graduated as a theatre director from the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University. He was appointed principal director of the Kote Marjanishvili State Academic Drama Theatre in 1998 and managing director and artistic director of Vaso Abashidze Music and Drama State Theatre in 2007. He has worked for major European theatres, such as the Royal National Theatre in London, the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, the Croatian National Theatre Ivan Zajc in Rijeka and the National Theatre Bucharest. He is two-time recipient of the Duruji Award, the most noted prize for work in the theatre in Georgia, and his stage production of Macbeth, which was performed as part of MITEM in 2014, was chosen as the Best Play at a prestigious international festival in Bogota, Columbia. Currently, two of Doiashvili’s productions are part of the repertoire of the National Theatre in Budapest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cyrano de Bergerac.

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