Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre
Georgia's main drama company, in an ornate 1901 building on Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi.
The Rustaveli company traces its line to the Georgian drama troupe revived in the late 1870s, and it has since been the leading dramatic stage in the country. Its home on Rustaveli Avenue was put up between 1899 and 1901 to designs by Alexander Shimkevich, working with Kornely Tatishchev, as the building of the Artists' Society. The heavily ornamented Rococo-influenced interiors, with painted ceilings and a decorated foyer, survive from that scheme.
The theatre carries the name of the medieval poet Shota Rustaveli and became a state theatre in the Soviet period. Under directors including Kote Marjanishvili, Sandro Akhmeteli and later Robert Sturua it built an international reputation, touring productions of Shakespeare and Brecht widely from the 1970s onwards. The repertoire mixes Georgian drama with translated classics and new writing, played on a main stage and a smaller studio space.
Highlights
- Rococo-influenced auditorium and painted foyer of 1901
- Home of the country's leading drama company
- Productions associated with the director Robert Sturua
- Main stage and a smaller studio auditorium
