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ues of little boys and girls dancing round it. This seemed an unsettling miracle after so many thousands of children had perished in the ruins all around.“ REZO GABRIADZE - A COMPLETE AUTHOR Rezo Gabriadze, a playwright and an artist was born in 1936 in Georgia. He graduated from the Philological Faculty on the State University of Tbilisi. Besides being a playwright, Gabriadze is also a film director with a total of 35 films produced including Take it Easy, Mimino, Kindzaza, Eccentrics ... Gabriadze founded the Provincial Studio Theatre and toured with it Paris, Berlin, Madrid, the U.S. and participated at many festivals: in Edinburgh and Avignon, then Moscow and Washington Gabriadze founded and built the puppet theatre in early sixties. Together with a famous theatre cafe it became one of the landmarks in tourist guides of Tbilisi ever since. The theatre was ruined during the civil war, but upon Gabriadze's arrival from the exile, he builds it from scratch, expands and renovates it. Since the play The Battle of Stalingrad: A Requiem was staged in 1994, it toured the whole of Europe, becoming a hit on the last year's World Stage Festival in Toronto and in the Lincoln Centre Festival in New York. ABOUT THE PLAY "God, so many people had died and they still haven't finished counting them. But no one has counted us, ants, although there was no one who walked on earth so silently like us", says the Ant, one of the most striking characters of the Rezo Gabriadze puppet theatre play The Battle of Stalingrad: A Requiem. The play was staged in 1994 and was Gabriadze's first project upon his return from France where he found refuge during the civil war in Georgia (1992-94). The Battle of Stalingrad: A Requiem covers the five year period and territories from Stalingrad towards Kiev and from Moscow to Berlin. The battle itself is just a context, a frame within which the audience follows several fates simultaneously, including generals of the army, horses and ants whose lives are affected and determined by war. There is a horse named Aljosha who is searching for his beloved Natasha, a circus mare; then a boy named Yesha whom we first meet as an icecream man and next time we see him as a crazed returnee from the battlefield who is carrying a Kalashnikov and interrupts into a wedding with it; there is also an elegant painter and a spy, Molder, who smokes in a decadent Berlin cafe at one moment and the next, falls in front of it hit by bullets fired by an unknown attacker... Among characters there is also a soldier from Odessa, the Soviet general Gorenko, the German

field marshal who leads his soldiers to various wars within two millenniums. Gabriadze portrays his characters as tragic and comic and absurd, regardless of the warring side they belong to. Their stories are presented as mutually interwoven poetic fragments, in the literary and visual form of a collage. The author uses different kinds of puppets - marionettes, gignoles, shadow puppets of various sizes and materials. On his small puppet stage - box, he is able to produce spectacular effects using very simple means. Silvija Jestrović ABOUT REZO GABRIADZE THEATRE As you know our theatre is from Georgia, it is said, was the land of Colchis, where Jason found his Golden Fleece and fell in love with Medea. Georgia converted to Christianity in 4th century. Georgia has a long history of theatre though there is no special tradition of the marionettes in Georgia. Our theatre is called Rezo Gabriadze Theatre Studio. It is situated in the most beautiful part of the old Tbilisi. There are only 80 seats in our theatre. Rezo Gabriadze came to theatre from the cinema being an author of about 35 scripts. Among them are the most popular Georgian and Russian films, like: Don't Worry, Extraordinary Exhibition, Mimlno. Kindzadza, Eccentrics and others. The Tbilisi Marionette Theatre was founded in T9Bl by Rezo Gabriadze. The performances staged here were: Alfred and Violetta, The Autumn of my Springtime. Marshal de Fantier's Diamond, Daughter of The Trabizond Emperor, The Battle of Stalingrad. All these performances have thrilled the spectators in Moscow, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Oslo, Zurich, Mexico, London, Switzerland, Edinburgh International Festival, Avignon Festival, San-Diego Arts Festival, Kennedy Centre in Washington, Lincoln Center Festival, Spoletto Festival and so on. Here is what "Figaro" said about this Theatre: "Rezo Gabriadze theatre is a reflection of the artist's and poet's soul. He himself is a Theatre in all variety: an actor, a producer, a playwright, musician, designer. The result of his creative work is wonderful. His talent is diverse..."