Robert Sturua ( ka, რობერტ სტურუა; born 31 July 1938) is a Georgian

theater director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, who gained international acclaim for his original interpretation of the works of

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

. He was based at the Shota Rustaveli Dramatic Theater in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

, and has staged productions throughout the world.

Biography

Sturua was born in

into an artistic family. His father, Robert, was a notable painter, whose works are part of the permanent exposition at the Tbilisi Art Museum. Mr Sturua is married to Dudana Kveselava, an art historian and an artist in her own right and daughter of Mikhail Kveselava, an accomplished philologist, writer and philosopher, who served as a translator at the

Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

. Sturua studied under Mikhail Tumanishvili at the Tbilisi State Theater Institute. Graduating in 1961, he began his career at the Shota Rustaveli Theater, where he became principal director in 1979 and principal artistic director in 1982. His first success came with staging of ''The Trial of Salem'' by

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

in 1965 (original title: ''The Crucibles''). Later, Sturua mounted spectacular, offbeat productions of ''

The Caucasian Chalk Circle ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' () is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than the baby's wealthy b ...

'' by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

(1975), ''

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

'' (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, 1979–80) and ''

King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...

'' (New York, 1990), starring comic actor Ramaz Chkhikvadze. Starting with interpretations of ''Richard III'' and ''King Lear'', Sturua became known as paradoxical interpreter of Shakespeare’s theater. Out of 37 Shakespeare plays, Sturua has staged 17; 5 of which at Rustaveli. ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' (1986) was staged for the Riverside Studio in London with

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his distinctive deep, wikt:languid#Etymology 1, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and b ...

as Hamlet, and was hailed as one of ten best Shakespearian productions of the last 50 years by Shakespeare International Association. In the 1990s, Sturua's productions turned to the inner world. Works included '' Life is a Dream'' by Calderón (1992), ''

The Good Person of Szechwan ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' (, first translated less literally as ''The Good Man of Setzuan'') is a play written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau. The play was begun in 1938 but no ...

'' by Brecht (1993), ''Gospel According to Jacob'' (1995, based on the Georgian ABC Book by Iakob Gogebashvili), ''Lamara'' by Grigol Robakidze (1996). Sturua's dialogue with the audience acquired an even more philosophical tone and focused more on thoughts of eternity, and on the fine line between life and death. The metaphorical language of more recent interpretations is palpably more poetic and includes the fantasy "Styx", inspired by the music of Giya Kancheli (2002); two new versions of ''

'' staged in Tbilisi (2001, 2006); and ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' (2002).

Dismissal

In August 2011,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

's culture minister Nika Rurua dismissed Robert Sturua as head of the Tbilisi national theatre for "xenophobic" comments he made earlier this year, officials reported. "We are not going to finance

xenophobia Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

. Georgia is a multicultural country," Rurua said. Sturua said in an interview with local news agency of the county’s then-leader,

Mikheil Saakashvili Mikheil "Misha" Saakashvili (born 21 December 1967) is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. He is the founder and former chair ...

, that " Saakashvili doesn't know what Georgian people need because he is Armenian ... I do not want Georgia to be governed by a representative of a different ethnicity", he added. However, Robert Sturua later declared and explained that he did not mean disrespect to any ethnic group. "I want to speak about racism, of which I was accused. I just said I did not want to have a non-Georgian president. This is not disrespectful towards Armenians. If Armenians say they want a non-Armenian president, or Russians say they dream about a Georgian one, I will apologize." he said.Netgazeti
/ref>

References

Links

The official biography of Robert Sturua
''Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre''. Retrieved on April 13, 2007. *Banham, Martin (ed., 1995), ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'', page 1041.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, . *Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2007)
Sturua, Robert
''The Dictionary of Georgian National Biography''. Retrieved on April 13, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sturua, Robert 1938 births Living people Theatre people from Tbilisi Theatre directors from Georgia (country)