{"id":719,"date":"2020-04-18T09:55:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T09:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/?p=719"},"modified":"2022-02-05T13:14:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T13:14:59","slug":"an-absurd-night-in-a-georgian-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/an-absurd-night-in-a-georgian-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"An Absurd Night in a Georgian Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marina (Maka) Vasadze<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before We Got to Know Each Other. <\/em>Author: Basa Janikashvili. Directed by Zurab Getsadze. Stage designer: Shota Glurjidze; composer: Erekle Getsadze; video by Giorgi Khositashvili. Cast: Nino Burduli, Goga Pipinashvili. Date of premiere Apr 5, 2018, at the hotel Ambassadori-Tbilisi, Georgia. The play was staged in October 2018 as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair Theatre Programme.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Goga Pipinashvili (Gia), Nino Burduli (Nino) preparing for intimacy. Photo: Maia Odisharia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In Georgia, interest in the Theatre of the Absurd and other new directions began in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with searches for new, different theatrical spaces, carried out by young directors and playwrights. A new generation of Georgian writers is trying to keep pace with international art developments, among them Basa Janikashvili (born 1974), a prolific playwright; many of whose plays have been performed on Georgian or foreign stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janikashvili wrote Before We Got to Know Each Other <\/em>using the techniques of Absurd Theatre. His play is intimate in nature: two lonely people, an estranged couple in their late fifties, decide to restore their broken relationship. In order to revive their feelings, they rent a hotel room and start playing a game. The rule is as follows: a woman and a man, who have met by chance, like each other and go to a hotel. Basa Janikashvili has built the play with dialogue and minimal action, characteristic of absurd dramaturgy. The same story is repeated several times in different variations. The goal of the couple is to get to know each other, to discover each other again. Their \u201cfantasies\u201d play out all possible versions of a marital relationship, or relations between a man and a woman just living together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nino Burduli as Nino after failed sex. Photo: Maia Odisharia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Zurab Getsadze (born 1971, actor, director, head of the Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre) offered us an interesting interpretation of the play. He correctly determined that it should be performed in an intimate setting, and spectators should be not only viewers of the plot, but also direct participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team began to search for a hotel and managed\u2014even though the institution of patronage and sponsorship in Georgia is underdeveloped\u2014to find a room which could be used for the performance several times a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gia and Nino notice the author on the TV screen. Photo: Maia Odisharia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Performing personal stories in a hotel room has been a common enough practice in European theatre for some years, but in Georgia it was first implemented by Zurab Getsadze. He assembled a creative team of high-class professionals: stage designer Shota Glurjidze (born 1961, artist, theatre designer), music from Erekle Getsadze (born 1991, actor, musician) and, most importantly, two excellent actors, Nino Burduli (born 1958, theatre and cinema actress, director and translator) and Goga Pipinashvili (born 1961, theatre and film actor, director), for the roles of Nino and Gia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The director shortened the text, added or removed dialogue in places and changed the finale. In Basa Janikashvili\u2019s play, the action develops in a hotel room. According to Zurab Getsadze, 22 spectators in room #2208 become witnesses of the tragicomic coexistence of the lonely, estranged couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spectators gather in the hotel lobby. A member of the technical staff meets them and leads them to the room. They are placed on chairs and listen to recorded music at low volume. At this point, a woman and a man enter the room, a little drunk, talking loudly and laughing. They pay no attention to the spectators; they are only busy with each other. They begin to undress and find themselves in bed. At the moment when the spectators think that an intimate act will take place, the woman suddenly asks: \u201cDo we know each other?\u201d The man laughs and replies that he knows her: \u201cYes, sure. How are you?\u201d The woman: \u201cI\u2019m fine.\u201d Then insistently: \u201cAre you sure you know me?\u201d The man: \u201cOf course (laughs), of course.\u201d The woman: \u201cIf so, what is my name?\u201d The dialogue repeats this as a refrain throughout the entire play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main problem of this once loving couple is alienation. The woman thinks that the man does not know her properly, and the man is not attracted to the woman any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gia and Nino, the scene before the finale. Photo: Tako Robakidze<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The moment of intimacy fails. Gia takes the TV remote control and starts watching TV channels (footage recorded especially for the performance). Nino gets up, puts on her robe and goes to the bathroom; after a while, she comes back and starts a dialogue with Gia. Then, they go back to intimacy. After a second attempt at sex fails, Gia almost repeats Nino’s actions. They are, in turn, sometimes in bed, sometimes in the bathroom, and, in this case, the other is watching TV in the room, or looking out of the window. These actions are repeated several times before the performance ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game they have invented and offer to each other is a fantasy based on their lifestyle. In it, they betray each other, kill each other\u2019s lovers, abuse one another, and so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story takes place over one night and covers the entire past lives of these two persons. Conditionality is embedded in this very realistic, even naturalistic plot from the very beginning. The playwright, director and actors reflect in the story-game of these two people the problem of alienation, isolation, spiritual loneliness\u2014the problem that began on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and intensifies in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The spectators give applause. Photo: Maia Odisharia<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The director has emphasised the grotesque moments in the play. This was reflected in the acting style of the actors. Goga Pipinashvili and Nino Burduli create dramatic, comical characters. To sculpt their characters, they use varying skills, methods, nuances and tonality: sometimes dramatic, sometimes farcical, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes grotesque, sometimes tragic. Most importantly, during 55 minutes they never \u201close\u201d the momentum of the play, characteristic for the Theatre of the Absurd. As if one story ends and everything starts anew. The director and actors follow the rhythm set from the very beginning\u2014dialogue, pauses, silence, action\u2014alternating, moving from scene to scene, from episode to episode, as if these were calculated with mathematical precision: the director and actors slowly head towards the so-called finale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zurab Getsadze uses video clips on the hotel room’s TV screen between episodes in the play. These video inserts: commercials, excerpts from news programs, and so on, seem, at first glance, to fill in the blanks. The director made a conceptually different finale for the play. In the Theatre of the Absurd, nothing ever ends; after an ending, everything starts anew. That is what happens here, too. But the director\u2019s finale is different. The author of the play, Basa Janikashvili, appears on the TV screen several times. Nino and Gia, as if understanding each other again, finally fall in love and, at that moment, they notice the author on TV. Gia runs off with a gun in his hand, Nino runs after him. The spectators see on the TV screen that the characters kill the author. The director has intensified the irony of an absurdly realistic story. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Marina (Maka) Vasadze <\/strong>is theatre critic, Dr. of Arts, Associate Professor at Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University, head of publishing house Kentavri<\/em> at the same University, Secretary of the International Association of Theatre Critics<\/em> (AICT-IATC) Georgian section, author of several monographs, textbooks, auxiliary textbooks for students and more than 300 articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2020 Marina (Maka) Vasadze
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/PER-Absnight-photo-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/its-everyday-bro-youtube-authenticity-and-the-psychopathology-of-late-capitalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":0},"title":"“It’s Everyday, Bro”: YouTube, \u201cAuthenticity,\u201d and the Psychopathology of Late Capitalism","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"May 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Eaket* Abstract Within Theatre and Performance Studies, terms like \u201cliveness\u201d or \u201c(co-)presence\u201d are keywords that encapsulate entire debates within the discipline that have played out over time; negotiations of meaning enacted through academic, performative usage. I want to examine the medium of YouTube (2005+) and, more specifically, Shane Dawson\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":70,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/making-community-in-the-age-of-migration-what-is-the-role-of-social-media-in-contemporary-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":1},"title":"Making Community in the Age of Migration: What Is the Role of Social Media in Contemporary Theatre","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"May 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Janne Cleveland* Abstract In thinking about the aspects of staging that mediate performance, I turn to my experience of seeing the 2018 Stratford Festival production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, directed by Robert Lepage. What stood out to me, in one scene, was how texting on a large screen conveyed dialogue to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image2-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image2-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image2-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image2-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/siri-are-you-female-reinforcing-and-resisting-gender-norms-with-digital-assistants\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":2},"title":"\u201cSiri, Are You Female?\u201d: Reinforcing and Resisting Gender Norms with Digital Assistants","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"May 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Kimberley McLeod* Abstract This article outlines a performance as research project that questions how performing with voiced digital assistants (for instance, Amazon\u2019s Alexa, Apple\u2019s Siri) impacts understandings of the openings and constraints for the female voice in performance. In addition, the project considers how performance might be used to subvert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/kimberly-featured3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/kimberly-featured3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/kimberly-featured3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/kimberly-featured3.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":59,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/art-world-authenticities-postmodern-curators-creators-and-performers\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":3},"title":"Art World Authenticities: Postmodern Curators, Creators and Performers","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"April 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dena Davida* Abstract As global art worlds e\/merge and artists circulate with increasing intensity, discussions around authenticity are spinning new and compelling narratives. While moving among gatherings of live arts curators and in daily conversations with creative artists in North America and Europe the concept frequently resurfaces, often with urgency\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image4.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/03\/image4.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/martinique\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":4},"title":"MARTINIQUE : Cahiers de confinement","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"May 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Janine Bailly* La Structure \u00ab\u00a0Tropiques Atrium Sc\u00e8ne Nationale\u00a0\u00bb poursuit en ligne son activit\u00e9, sous l\u2019enseigne\u00a0: #Culturecheznous. Le Festival \u00ab\u00a0Rencontres Cin\u00e9ma Martinique\u00a0\u00bb a \u00e9t\u00e9 annul\u00e9. Pendant cinq semaines, \u00e0 raison d\u2019une s\u00e9rie diff\u00e9rente par semaine, les courts-m\u00e9trages pr\u00e9vus pour la section \u00ab\u00a0Documentaires\u00a0\u00bb ont \u00e9t\u00e9 visibles, apr\u00e8s accord avec leurs r\u00e9alisateurs. Suzanne\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Covid"","block_context":{"text":"Covid","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/covid\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/flag-france400.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":473,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/poland-internet-theatre-and-insufficient-state-support-for-the-artists\/","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":5},"title":"POLAND: Internet-theatre and Insufficient State Support for the Artists","author":"Marina (Maka) Vasadze","date":"May 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomasz Mi\u0142kowski* Theatres in Poland have been closed since March 12, 2020. Likewise, cinemas, restaurants, cafes and sports facilities. The pandemic has frozen economic and social life. The theatre\u2014after a short, initial period of shock\u2014has moved temporarily to the internet; actually, it has had a presence there for a long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Covid"","block_context":{"text":"Covid","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/covid\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/flag-pl-400.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}