Directed by Robert Sturua Designed by Mirian Shvelidze Choreography by Gia Margania Assistant Director Gia Khazhalia Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Gia Kancheli. Folk tunes performed by the Kakunesh, Kamal and the Anugama ensembles.
Cast: David Papuashvili (Raibul), David Darchia (Togvai), Zaza Papuashvili (Mindia), David Uplisashvili (Khiddir), Levan Berikashvili (Murtaz), Nino Kasradze (Lamara), David Iashvili (Ganish), Baya Dvalishvili (Mziula), Nino Arsenishvili (Maya), Tristan Saralidze (Kavtar), David Iashvili (Lagaz), Mamuka Loria (The dumb man) and others.

Robert Sturua is one of the outstanding theatre directors of today, a winner of the State Prize of the USSR and of Georgia and a holder of the title of the Public Actor of the USSR. He was born in Tbilisi in 1938, and he graduated from the Tbilisi Institute of Theatrical Art in 1962. After graduation he joined the Rustaveli Theatre as a director. He became the Artistic Director of the Rustaveli in 1980. His first major success came with his 1965 direction of Arthur Miller's The Crucible (Salem Witchcraft Trials), which was followed in the seventies with a series of brilliant productions, showing Sturua's mature talent as a director. It was during that time that the notion of "Sturua's theatre" was born. Sturua's productions brought world-wide recognition to the Rustaveli Theatre. It has performed in Moscow and Dusseldorf, Mexico and Edinburgh, Jerusalem and Rome. Robert Sturua's work as a director has not been confined to Georgia alone. His productions of plays by Shakespeare, Sophocles, Moliere, Brecht and Chekhov with various foreign companies have been performed in a number of theatres in various parts of the world. Robert Sturua has received the Rustaveli, the Mardzhanishvili and the Akhmeteli Awards. He became the first winner of the recently established Tumanishvili Award.

Grigor Robakidze's play Lamara, staged and directed in 1928 by Sandro Akhmeteli, is The Seagull of the Rustaveli Theatre. It was banned, for its author had emigrated, and the name of its director, purged during Stalin's rule, was obliterated. Seventy years after its first production, the theatre turned to this play again. It is both a philosophical parable and a legend. The story is set in Khevsuretia, the land where Georgia borders on Chechnya. The main character of the play is Mindia, a clairvoyant, privy to the secrets and mysteries of Nature. He does not only know the language of plants, birds and animals, but also understands the soul of water and the stars. He is an epitome of good and kindness, he heals the sick and helps the deprived and the poor. The only thing that makes him suffer is evil sown by man.

Mossovet Theatre 16 April Bolshaya Sadovaya St., 16

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