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Shakespeare 450 International Conference opens in Tbilisi, Georgia


I am in Tbilisi, Georgia, for the Shakespeare 450 International Conference which commenced on Thursday May 1, 2014, at the Ivane Javakhaishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), and will conclude on Saturday May 3 at The Rustaveli Theatre.

The conference, dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the birth of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was organized by TSU’s Centre for Shakespeare Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and the Rustaveli National Theatre. Many Shakespeare conferences have been, and will be, held this milestone year, but the Tbilisi conference will focus on an inter-disciplinary theme. For three days, scholars, students, thespians, and Shakespeare devotees will present sessions related to Shakespeare’s influence on literature, Shakespeare on stage and in movies, translations, research, and the issues in teaching Shakespeare across disciplines, such as drama, education, music, modern languages, classics, history, art and film.

Professor Manana Gelashvili opened the conference under the spectacular painted dome of the Museum Hall. Presenter, translator and English lecturer Maya Kiasashvili commenced with an introductory session on Shakespeare’s impact on Georgian culture, fittingly, coming from a long line of authors and actors, such as Nico Kiasashvili, one of the leading Shakespearian scholars and author of The Georgian Shakespeariana. She discussed the importance of translation and interpretation in the bard’s works. Tinatin Margalitaze followed this with a presentation on lexiconography and the importance of English-Georgian dictionaries in the translation of Shakespeare into Georgian.

John F Bourke of Australia discussed the function of the author in poetry, in reference to Shakespeare's sonnets, and whether poetry is determined by the poet or self-determining, organic or mechanical, true genius or not. Other presentations included mythical allusions to Shakespeare in James Joyce’s Ulysses; allusions of Midsummer Night’s Dream in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake; allusions in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World; Quentin as a parody of Hamlet in The Sound and the Fury; reception of Shakespeare by Henry James; and Shakespeare’s glitch makes Tom Stoppard rich - in reference to the British playwright's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966-67) from the perspective of two characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

With medical student Tamar Zhghenti, I presented a session entitled Shakespeare and Medicine focusing on physical ailments across a diverse range of Shakespeare’s plays.

The conference concludes on Saturday with an exhibition in the Rustaveli Theatre of books, stage design and theatrical costumes, and performances of the bard’s plays, including a video-show of The Tempest directed by Robert Sturua.




The domed ceiling in the Museum Hall of Tbilisi State University


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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