The eighth issue of the New Iveria magazine was supposed to be published shortly after the 26 October parliamentary elections, but the preparation and publication of the issue was considerably delayed. The reason is easy to guess: After the special operation called “Elections”—the main lesson of which was that Russia will not lose control over Georgia and will not give up by vote what it achieved through elections 13 years ago—all routine has ended and a new era has begun in Georgia. An era of general awakening, an era of understanding and realization, and sometimes even admission of our own mistakes.

Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and the executors of his will, Georgian Dream, used an unprecedented large-scale electoral manipulation scheme to rig the parliamentary elections on 26 October 2024 and usurp power.

I read a book titled Зима тревоги нашей back in my childhood. It was lying by my brother’s bedside, I got curious, and he recommended it to me. Forgive me, but back then, such books were only available in Russian. The Winter of Our Discontent—in English if you insist. John Steinbeck’s novel was published in Georgian in 2023 under the title The Winter of Our Anxiety.

The concept of a national archive that preserves the records of a state for the benefit of society is a relatively modern one. With the evolution of bureaucracies as institutions of state administration, records were preserved and accumulated at first for administrative use by the state’s bureaucrats.

“At a time when the entire Republic of Georgia has been turned into a prison, it is easy to imagine what the prison itself, set up within this larger prison, will be like. Almost 80% cannot be charged—what could they possibly be charged with? Under these conditions, political prisoners are treated more harshly than criminals.

Millennia have passed since the Meditations of the deceased Marcus Aurelius were found in his military camp, but not only has the ‘performance’ of the Enlightened Emperor retained its significance, no one has since been able to describe with such precision and depth the essence of history and historical memory.

The land was in turmoil, and Giorgi II, seeing his strength wane, laid down his crown and placed it upon the brow of his son, who was but sixteen years of age. From his earliest days, young Davit showed great promise, and thus did his feeble father, lacking the will to rule, anoint him king. And lo, fortune smiled upon this deed—for of all his days upon the throne, this alone did weak Giorgi accomplish with wisdom...

We hear endless analyses and interpre­tations from both pro-government and opposition speakers, weary of their own wisdom. One “respectable” analyst even claimed that the Georgian people’s struggle for a bright future is currently in the phase of stripping the husk off maize—an essential step before breaking the oligarch like an ear of corn and throwing him into the pot—I am not joking.

When I hear—a successful person—I feel a slight sense of incomprehension. And as I often come across such a description, I decided to understand what is behind this feeling.

Indeed, theatre has always been a political, social, and contemporary art form—from Greek tragedy to Molière’s itinerant troupe, Shakespeare’s Globe, and French classical drama. In the twentieth century, theatre became even more incisive, political, and relevant as the works of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Samuel Beckett radically transformed its language, meaning, and message.