26/05/2026
20 May, 2026
Ambassador’s address
H.E. Tamar Beruchashvili, Ambassador of Georgia to Romania
Presented by Alexandra Radu – President of the Romania-Georgia Friendship Association "Antim Ivireanul"
It is a great honour for me to address you today at the opening of the 2026 Craiova Shakespeare Festival, a festival that has become one of Europe’s most important celebrations of theatrical art, creative freedom and cultural diplomacy.
For Georgia, Shakespeare has never been merely a literary figure. He became part of our national story.
In Georgia, Shakespeare became known at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a painful period in our history, when the statehood of Georgia was abolished and our country was forcefully incorporated to Russian Empire. During this period a unique, ancient Georgian language was gradually being pushed out of public life.
Yet culture has always been the strongest guardian of our freedom.
The very first performance of a Shakespeare play in Georgia was staged not in the capital city, but in a small village of Western Georgia called Bandza, in 1873. There, Prince Paghava funded a production of The Merchant of Venice in the Georgian language. Perhaps it was safer to speak Shakespeare in Georgian far from the watchful eyes of the imperial authorities. But even then, theatre became an act of quiet resistance.
The translation of Shakespeare into Georgian was itself an act of courage.
Among the first to undertake this task was the prominent writer and publicist Prince Dimitri Kipiani. Later, the extraordinary translations of Prince Ivane Machabeli gave Shakespeare a special place in the Georgian language, translations that remain in use to this day. At that time, translating literary masterpieces into Georgian was not simply cultural work; it was a defence of identity and national dignity.
The restoration of Georgian theatre during the nineteenth century served the same purpose: to preserve the Georgian language and national consciousness at a time when political power sought to silence both.
The great Georgian poet and public figure Ilia Chavchavadze translated King Lear in 1873 for performances by the newly established Georgian Artistic Society, helping to pave the way for what would later become the famous Rustaveli National Theatre.
For Prince Machabeli, Shakespeare represented artistic perfection worthy of the Georgian stage. For Ilia Chavchavadze, Shakespeare also offered something more a powerful metaphor through which Georgians could express their aspirations for freedom and statehood.
Unfortunately both Prince Machabeli’s and Ilia Chavchavadze’s lives ended tragically.
If the Shakespeare productions of nineteenth-century Georgia were shaped by the struggle to preserve language and identity, later, in the twentieth century Shakespeare challenged another form of oppression - the Soviet rule.
Among them stood one of the greatest figures of modern theatre: Robert Sturua, the legendary Artistic Director of the Rustaveli National Theatre. Over the course of his remarkable career, he staged twenty-one Shakespeare plays around the world, six of them in his native Tbilisi.
Robert Sturua transformed Shakespeare into a language of political resistance. This is perhaps why Shakespeare remains so deeply meaningful to Georgia today.
For Georgia, culture has never been only an artistic expression; it has also been a way to preserve freedom, dignity, and national memory.
Today, as Georgia and Romania continue to strengthen their friendship through culture, dialogue, and shared European values, festivals such as this one become more important than ever. Cultural diplomacy creates bridges where geography and politics sometimes create distances.
The Georgian Shakespearean tradition, shaped by generations of artists from Ilia Chavchavadze to Robert Sturua, feels deeply at home at the Craiova Shakespeare Festival. Georgia is proud to belong to the great international Shakespeare family represented here today.
I am also particularly pleased to note that the S***a Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University is participating in the UNATC Fringe Programme within the framework of the Craiova International Shakespeare Festival with the performance “Titus”, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.
The production is presented by the fourth-year pantomime group of the university as part of their graduation work, representing a new generation of Georgian theatre artists who continue the rich Shakespearean tradition of our country through innovative artistic expression and contemporary theatrical language.
Romania and Georgia share a profound understanding of how culture safeguards identity through difficult periods of history. It is therefore deeply symbolic that here, in Craiova, through Shakespeare, artists and audiences from across the world come together not only to celebrate theatre, but also the values of dialogue, freedom, and human dignity.
Allow me to express my deepest appreciation to the organizers of the Craiova Shakespeare Festival for bringing together artists and audiences from across the world in this extraordinary celebration of creativity.
I wish the Festival every success and all participants unforgettable days of inspiration, dialogue, and artistic excellence.
Thank you
