Visit of Tbilisi Theater Reminds me Drive in Marshrutka (2014)

This autumn season we wanted to start with something beautiful.

At the end of every September, the Tbilisi International theatre festival is held. Actually, it might come as a surprise for some, but Tbilisi is a city that loves theatres. At least there are dozens of them in the city, there are some smaller ones and then there are some larger ones, the ones which receive state funding.

So, on September 20th we went on one play which was held in the frame of the Tbilisi International Theater festival

We decided to buy some tickets, by using Georgian biletebi.ge (we have used this system before, for buying tickets for other events in Tbilisi, for example, concert of Boris Grebenshchikov and Aquarium @ Tbilisi Concert Hall)

We bought tickets for 25GEL in the high first flow (balcony) on the play of Songs of the Wanderers, took our taxi, and went to Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theater.

As usual, it happens in Georgia, organizers don't care about queues:

Queue at Rustaveli theater

Queue at Rustaveli theater

It turned out everyone is waiting for the State president:

I had an opportunity to take one Instagram with Georgian president leaving his SUV car, unfortunately not the best quality photo:

President of Georgia leaving SUV

President of Georgia leaving SUV

After a couple of minutes, we are following and entered the Theater building. We found our seats on the balcony, and start to wait for start of the spectacle

Rustaveli theater

Rustaveli theater

You can see president and Mayor of Tbilisi hall sitting in one row in the middle of the hall

President of Georgia

President of Georgia (in middle)

Now comes the funny or sad part - our balcony. Well, we had a nice view of the President, but we hadn't any view of the main stage. 

Rustaveli theatre main stage from balcony

Rustaveli theatre's main stage from the balcony

We had a second row on the balcony. And people sitting in the front row blocked any view of to stage. Actually, normally on the balcony, there would be a place for 2 rows, and for people in each cabin, we had 3 rows and 6 people. People from the last (3d) row did stand up to get a better view. Since I didn't see much from the balcony, I called this a ride in marshrutka.

After 15 minutes we left, and I doubt I will come back to this theater for a very long long time.