Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre
Georgia's second state drama theatre, housed in the Art Nouveau People's House of 1909.
The building on Marjanishvili Street began as the People's House, paid for by the Zubalashvili brothers in memory of their father. A competition held in 1901 was won by the St Petersburg architect Stefan Kryczynski, of Polish descent, and work ran from 1902 to 1907; the house opened on 4 April 1909 with a 630-seat hall, a reading room and a library tea shop. Its curving facade and ornamented interiors count among the best Art Nouveau work in Tbilisi.
The company itself was founded at Kutaisi in 1928 by the director Kote Marjanishvili, who had already reshaped Georgian staging practice at the Rustaveli Theatre. It moved into the People's House in 1930 and took Marjanishvili's name after his death in 1933. The theatre plays a broad repertoire of Georgian and international drama across a main auditorium and a smaller roof stage, and has toured widely in Europe. A museum and gallery inside the building record the company's history.
Highlights
- Art Nouveau People's House of 1909 by Stefan Kryczynski
- Main auditorium and a separate roof stage for smaller productions
- Theatre museum and gallery documenting the company since 1928
- Walk of fame outside honouring Georgian stage actors
