Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Director: Adrian Giurgea
- Theatre:LEPL Mikheil Tumanishvili Professional State Film Actors' Theatre / Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre
- Hosting Theatre :Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre
- Date:
- 1 September - 20:00 hr,
Author - Edward Albee
Director - Adrian Giurgea
Set Designer - Levan Kvaratskhelia
Costume Designer - Levan Kvaratskhelia
Choreographer - Keti Asatiani
Composer / Musical Direction - Adrian Giurgea
Assistant Director - Mariam Zhamerashvili
Genre: Psychological Drama
Cast: Goga Pipinashvili, Nineli Chankvetadze, Gagi Shengelia, Nutsa Sulaberidze
Premiere Date: 30 June 2026
Duration / Intermission:130 minutes, in two acts
About Performance:
Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? premiered on Broadway in 1962. Two couples, one long night, four drinks too many, and the slow demolition of every illusion they carried through the door. For decades, the play has been read as a portrait of marital conflict. It is that, certainly. But Adrian Giurgea's new production at the Tumanishvili Theatre moves it beyond the category of "marital drama" and returns it to the broader historical and political context in which it was written. In 1962, the United States was only twenty years removed from the Holocaust while still enforcing a domestic sterilisation programme that had affected more than sixty thousand of its own citizens. Albee recognised the system beneath the marriage. He gave George the speech that exposes it—the speech about the "sperm tubes," the ugly, the stupid, and the unfit; the speech about making them all the same. This production places that speech at the very centre of the performance. Everything else unfolds from it.
"We came to change everything in theatre." — this vision of Mikheil Tumanishvili continues to define the artistic spirit of the theatre today. The origins of the theatre date back to 1975, when Mikheil Tumanishvili established a theatrical workshop at the Georgian Film Studio (Kartuli Pilmi). In 1978, this workshop evolved into the Film Actors Theatre, a unique studio-based company founded by the actors and directors of Tumanishvili's experimental ensemble. The creative legacy of Mikheil Tumanishvili—one of Georgia's most influential theatre reformers, directors, and teachers—remains at the heart of the institution's identity. Since 1996, the theatre has proudly borne his name, continuing the traditions of the "Tumanishvili School" while combining its artistic heritage with contemporary theatrical exploration. Tumanishvili Film Actors' Theatre, is a state repertory theatre with a permanent ensemble. It actively collaborates with Georgian and international directors, participates in international festivals, and develops cross-cultural artistic partnerships and exchange projects. The theatre's distinctive stage—designed according to Mikheil Tumanishvili's own concept as an open space without a curtain or wings—continues to embody one of its fundamental principles: creating an immediate and intimate connection between actor and audience.
Artistic Director: Ioane (Vano) Khutsishvili
Theatre Director: Ioane (Vano) Khutsishvili
Contact Person and Position: Maia Odisharia / Project Curator
Contact Information: +995 591 615 223 / maia.odisharia@tumanishvilitheatre.ge / www.tumanishvilitheatre.ge