Fast Forward 2025

THEATRE UNDER PRESSURE: FILM & TALK
Sunday, 16.11.2025, 11.00 › Kleines Haus 3, free admission

Almost everywhere in Europe, theatres are part of state cultural policy and financed by public funds. This gives theatres a place in society, a mission and, along with this duty, the freedom to take an artistic look at the society they are part of. What does it mean when this ‘open’ relationship stops being valued and starts to be questioned politically?
The situation in Georgia is one example of this process.
In 2020, the Tbilisi New Drama Festival produced the video performance DADDY HANGS HIMSELF IN THE FOREST in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland and Tbilisi’s independent production company Open Space. The production stages the text by Polish author Przemysław Pilarski, is directed by Georgian director Davit Khorbaladze, and performed by Georgian actor Sandro Samkharadze. It captivates with its interplay of content, form and societal context. In the midst of the pandemic, a young artistic team addresses the topic of ‘isolation’ and uses aesthetic means to give a diagnosis of the present that resonates beyond the moment.
Davit Khorbaladze's video performance DADDY HANGS HIMSELF IN THE FOREST is also the result of transnational networks, in this case between Georgia and Poland, and of a generation of theatre makers who are not only seeking their voice, but also insisting on having one. Today this self-understanding is no longer politically welcomed in Georgia and is downright dangerous for the protagonists in the cultural field. Around the world political, social and sexual emancipation is up for debate in countries where political parties and people in power are fundamentally questioning their citizens' rights to self-determination.

Following the film screening, there will be an online talk with Davit Khorbaladze and Sandro Samkharadze about the current situation in Georgia.
Presenter: Charlotte Orti von Havranek

Daddy Hangs Himself in the Forest
A production of the Tbilisi New Drama Festival 2020
With the support of Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland & Open Space, Centre for Performance and Visula Arts, Georgia
Text Przemysław Pilarski
Directing & Composition Davit Khorbaladze
With Sandro Samkharadze
Duration of the video performance: 63 minutes
The talk will take place until 13:00.