“Wherever there is protest, theatre is near”: Tbilisi’s Vaso Abashidze New State Theatre troupe continues resistance against government

On the tumultuous streets of Tbilisi, one Georgian theatre company has transformed resistance into performance. For the past ten months, the actors of the Vaso Abashidze New State Theatre have abandoned the stage to join the country’s mass protests — not with chants, but with scenes, songs, and stories, demanding the release of imprisoned colleagues and defying a government they see as drifting toward authoritarianism.

Even after many have been sentenced to jail, protests continue.

“When protest is alive, theatre is alive too. Wherever there is protest, theatre is near,” says Paul, an actor at the Vaso Abashidze New State Theatre, who has requested to use a pseudonym to remain anonymous in this interview.

The performances were initially inspired by the spring 2024 protests against the passing of the “Law on Foreign Agents,” and intensified after Georgian Dream’s re-election under contentious circumstances in October 2024.

However, “the main catalyst for our protest was seeing many of our colleagues being mistreated at the protest, sometimes arrested or beaten,” Paul says.

Chief among the goals of his activism is to free actors who are currently detained. Most famous among them is Andro Chichinadze, Paul’s friend and coworker, who remains behind bars since 5 December 2024 and is one of the 11 protesters sentenced to prison in early September this year.

On 6 December, Chichinadze was charged with “group violence,” which carries a potential prison sentence of three to six years. Chichinadze hardly knew the fellow protesters who were also implicated under the group charge. More than half a year later, Chichinadze celebrated his birthday from prison, with no end to his case in sight.

“How can it be group violence?” Paul asks mockingly in an interview with Lossi 36.

Chichinadze’s case is one of many: Paul’s friend, Georgian actor Giorgi Bakhutashvili, was also arrested during the protests. Footage of him defending a young man from beatings by riot police went viral on social media in Georgia in early 2025, joining footage of countless others assaulted and detained by the authorities at otherwise peaceful demonstrations.

“You know ballerinas, physically they are small and fragile people […] and they beat her. This really angered us.”

Riot police are mainly large, strong men clad in black armor with shields and clubs. Paul’s story paints a deeply disturbing image of police violence towards the city’s youth.

The fines authorities have dished out to actors in his company, typically under the dubious charge of “blocking the road,” have been extremely costly. Each fine is 5000 Georgian lari (EUR 1,600), and some actors have been fined up to three times under the same charge, totalling 15 000 lari ( EUR 4,800). This is a herculean sum within a country where net salaries average USD 600 a month. Even so, for them the activism is worth the cost.

“Tbilisi is a small city, and the acting community is even smaller… we’ve grown up with each other, studied together and are now friends with each other,” Paul says.

He also reflects on the troupe’s solidarity with the city: “Our audience is on the streets protesting, so we felt it right to bring the theatre to the streets as well.”

While much attention has been on their activity in Tbilisi, the actors have also travelled the country with this performance. They played in Batumi, Zugdidi, Kutaisi, Gori, and will soon play in Ozurgheti, Telavi, and Akhaltsikhe. With over half the population living outside of Tbilisi, interaction with these constituencies is valuable. The performers’ tour lends support to like-minded activists across Georgia, many of whom enthusiastically joined their Tbilisi counterparts in past demonstrations.

When asked if his company’s performance received any backlash in the smaller, often more conservative cities and towns, Paul rejected the idea. “Georgians’ love for arts and performance led us to feel welcome everywhere,” he says. “We are also not telling people in the smaller regions what to think but simply asking them to think.”

The Georgian government, however, has not been so tolerant of their activities. Complicating their situation, their theatre is state-owned and they have not performed there for seven months. The government informed them that if they did not return to performing, they would face consequences, including their replacement by another theatre company.

The Georgian government followed through on this with the highly controversial dismissal of the Vaso Abashidze New State Theatre’s director, Davit Doaishvili, on 17 April. This sparked further protests from actors in the company and the theatre stated, “We do not recognise the decision of the illegitimate Ministry of Culture, and we will not let Davit Doaishvili go.”

The official reasoning given for the dismissal of Doaishvili was that the company had not taken to the stage for seven months. The company pushed back on this accusation, noting that the Ministry of Culture conveniently ignored the fact that Doaishvili’s colleagues had been detained for months during this process. For them, there was no reasonable way they could return to the stage without actors such as Chichinadze.

Paul is more pessimistic about the political impact of the closing of the theatre and the public performances. He finds comments made by pro-government journalist Shalva Ramishvili illustrative: “We don’t give a fuck, because a whorehouse is more important than a theatre.”

Yet, there is hope, says Paul. “I think and I believe that this period in our history — and these tough times — will help Georgian theatre become louder; because in other times we have been soft and uninspiring — more focused on the beauty of performances.”

The actors of the Vaso Abashidze New State Theatre have walked their talk: they have cancelled all other plays which were unrelated to the ongoing political turmoil. If and when they eventually return to theatre on strict government orders, they plan to perform a version of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, adapting it to the current situation in Georgia. The performers see a parallel between Miller’s take on the witch trials in the US in the 1690s and the politicisation of the criminal justice system in their country today.

Andro Chichinadze’s trial began on 24 April. Prosecuted in a politically captured justice system, his prospects of acquittal were slim. On 3 September, Chichinadze was sentenced to two years in prison. He is left with little idea what sort of country may be waiting for him when he is released.