“Natsarkekia” – the interpretation and staging of the fairy tale in Georgian Theatre

Abstract

The first children's theater in Transcaucasia was founded in 1927 in Tbilisi. The new theater needed an appropriate repertoire, in the first two seasons 9 plays were staged, and only three were original Georgian plays: "Bothe and Kuspara", "Gocha" and "The Devil." During the first 10 years, 42 plays were staged, the main themes were: the past and revolutionary battles, episodes of civil war, partisan movement, heroic life and work of great leaders and revolutionaries, the struggle of communists in strengthening the socialist state, cultural life of the Soviet Union and Georgia, inventors and technical achievements, social, international, anti-religious upbringing of children, workers and Revolutionary youth movement in capitalist countries and others.

For several years after its establishment, the Youth Theater has had the lack of children's dramaturgy. Some Georgian writers had an attempt to work in this field, although most of them were limited to only one play. The call of the famous Soviet writer Samuel Marshak at the Union Congress of 1934 regarding the return of fairy tales to the repertoire of theaters had a great impact on all children's theaters. A kind of "rehabilitation" of the fairy tale as a genre took place, and it was during this period that the Georgian theater for young audiences began to work in the direction of literary processing of folk tales. One of the first attempts belongs to Giorgi Nakhutsrishvili and Boris Gamrekeli - the Georgian fairy tale "Natsarkekia" (The Lazy bone) was first staged in the theater of young viewers in 1936.

In Giorgi Nakhutsrishvili's and Bori Gamrekeli's staging, Natsarkekia has already formed a face, he is a well-known character: cowardly, and greedy, but at the same time he’s got a wise mind. I am full of brains, and a man with brains is clever – he claims. The authors tried to rehabilitate his tarnished name to a certain extent and pitted the character against robbers, injustice, evil force, false judges, and greedy monarchs. In this way, the folk tale changed its face and became the bearer of a completely different morality and idea.

Although G. Nakhutsrishvili had predecessors in the literary interpretation of this fairy tale's text, it was reworked many times even after the play. Due to certain reasons, Giorgi Nakhutsrishvili's version is considered a kind of chrestomathic play, which is still relied upon by directors.

"Nazarkekia" was staged many times at different times in almost all drama, puppet, and public theaters in Georgia; Even the amateur troupes and theater studios often chose this fairy tale interpreted and adapted by Giorgi Nakhutsrishvili. Interestingly, the play often transforms, sometimes the directors remove certain scenes or characters, or, on the contrary, add them, however, usually these changes take place specifically within the framework of the tale-play reworked by G. Nakhutsrishvili, and not in the fairy tale itself. As we can see, the process of interpretation of the text of "Nazarkekia" is still ongoing in Georgian professional and amateur theater, and it may take another direction in the future.