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GABRIADZE THEATRE
Ramona is a romantic and tragic love story between two locomotives to steam of yesteryear. In the postwar Soviet Union, locomotive Ermon faces a long journey to Siberia where he is sent to work on peacetime reconstruction of the country. Locomotive Ramona waits for her husband at the small station in Rioni, cultivating dreams of living happily together. But their separation lasts first months, then long years that the heroes face distant from each other in good times and bad until to when a traveling circus comes to town and Ramona's life is changed forever. The distant lovers will meet again, but under what circumstances? Will they be able to to find their lost love?
On stage are the poetic characters of Rezo Gabriadze, a Georgian theater and film director, but also a screenwriter, writer, painter and sculptor, a masterful architect of a unique theatrical style that combines humor to heartbreaking pain in a world of mysteriously human puppets.
Inspired by Kipling's phrase "The locomotive is, along with the marine engine, the most delicate thing ever built by man," I decided to write about it too. Engine to steam, this word from long forgotten, evokes endless suggestions in my mind: evanescent clouds of steam, the smell of burning coal, thick smoke even in the rain. I am flooded from a different form of happiness thinking of the engine to steam - I think of the circus, the smell of tarpaulin, sawdust and the stable. The circus of my childhood. Two of my greatest passions coming together: the to steam engine and the circus. Something that seemed forgotten forever. All this prompted me to to tell about that heavenly feeling I found myself in, from to which life seemed instead to have permanently removed me." Rezo Gabriadze
written and directed from **Rezo Gabriadze **
music selection Rezo Gabriadze, Ellen Japaridze
puppet animators **Tamar Amirajibi, Irakli Sharashidze, Tamar Kobakhidze, Anna Nijaradze, Giorgi Giorgobiani, Niko Gelovani **
lights Mamuka Bakradze
sound David Khositashvili
puppet masters and set designers Viktor Platonov, Luka Gonashvili, Aleksander Kheimanovski, Gela Jangirashvili, Aleksandra Luniakova, Oleg Ermolaev, Svetlana Pavlova, Giorgi Giorgobiani, Levan Kiknavelidze, Artem Ozerov, Avtandil Gonashvili, Tamar Chalauri, Tamar Kobaxidze, Nana Chezghia
performers (voices)
Ermon Zaza Papuashvili
Ramona Nino Kasradze
Babakhidi Aleksei Kolgan
Samarkandsky Roman Kartsev
Hen Keto Rusudan Bolkvadze
Beglar Ruslan Mikaberidze
Pig Viktor Zaza Papuashvili
Olga Nino Arsenishvili
Old Man Rezo Tavartkiladze
Amalia Veronika Belenikina
Gipsy Nana Shonia
Uime Clowns and Vaime Denis Surnov
Policeman Davit Dvalishvili
Peasant Badri Gvazava
Gabriadze was born in the city of Kutaisi in 1936 in what was then Soviet Georgia. He grew up in a world of arts and letters, also strongly attracted to film. He went on to to write and illustrate over 35 screenplays, including such influential films as: _Do not Grieve, Mimino _and Kin-Dza-Dza. Frustrated by the lack of intellectual freedom during the Soviet era, he turned to puppet theater as an alternative way to tell his dramatic stories. In 1981 he founded the Gabriadze Theater, based at to Tbilisi. His productions of _Alfred and Violetta, The Autumn of Our Spring, The Emperor of Trebizond _and _The Battle of Stalingrad brought international recognition. from has since toured the world. As a painter and graphic designer, Rezo Gabriadze has contributed to more than 50 books. His illustrations have accompanied the writing of Pushkin, Kharms, Bitov. His artworks are exhibited in numerous museums and private collections, including the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Dostoevsky Museum in Moscow, and the Lenbach House Gallery in Munich. His iconic sculptures Chizhik-Pizik _and _Major Kovelov´s Nose _in St. Petersburg have become major attractions. In October 2012, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow presented his first major solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures. In 2016 a permanent exhibition of his paintings, graphics, sculptures and ceramics was opened in his Tbilisi gallery. He counts among his many international awards the title of "Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic."