მიხეილ ჯავახიშვილის თხზულებათა აუდიოვიზუალური ინტერპრეტაციები

აბსტრაქტი

სტატიიდან აღებული ავტორის ინგლისურენოვანი რეზიუმე:

The article offers an analysis of films and theatrical performances based on the works by remarkable Georgian prose writer Mikheil Javakhishvili, and namely theatrical performances and the film projects made while his lifetime. The main topics raised by the article are related with the contrasts and/or unities among the literary/verbal and film/theatrical ways of expression: was it possible to fully transpose the messages from literary texts into films and theatrical performances; how complete could be the understanding of artistic meaning of Javakhishvili’s literary works in the time of Soviet ideology domination; and was it possible to express that meaning publicly through film and theatre?

Mikheil Javakhishvili was thoroughgoing in his attempts of resisting to the Bolshevik regime and disclosing its evil nature. He was achieving these goals through developing alle- goric artistic methods, which made his novels acceptable for publishing even under the strict Soviet censorship. However, it was another difficult task to re-create the meaning of literary texts through adequate theater and film interpretations. The article discusses the success and/or failure of film/theatre directors while achieving these goals, and also the cases when Mikheil Javakhishvili’s author’s rights were neglected while staging his texts. In the first decades of the 20th century Georgian literature, as well as theatre and visual art, was the part of Western cultural context.

All major cultural tendencies of Modernist European culture were reflected and recalled in Georgian culture. Mikhail Javakhishvili was also participat- ing in this process. He has been famous in Georgia since 1903, when his first story Chanchura was published. However, after the Sovietization of the country in 1921, he was quite often criti- cized and morally persecuted by Soviets-biased literary critics. Through analyzing main mes- sages of his literary works, it’s seems logical that his professional and personal life was not that easy in Soviet times, and this ended in 1937, within the Great Soviet Purge, with his execution by the Soviets. In the end of the 1920s Javakhishvili wrote a play Iveriumi.

The project of staging the play was included in plans of three major Georgia theatres: Rustaveli National Theatre, Batumi Theater and Kutaisi Theater. Famous Georgian theatre director Sandro Akhmeteli highly evalu- ated the play, saying that nobody has written such a play in Georgian for last few years. Iveriumi was the continuation of Javakhishvili’s own novel Kvachi Kvachantiradze, with the same main character Kvachi, who is now coming back to Georgia from his exile in Turkey. Since the novel was full of action and humor, with intriguing plot and the whole gallery of memorable protago- nists, it became very popular from the very first day of its publishing.

The author himself and his theatrical colleagues were fully aware that the novel could be effectively dramatized. Shalva Dadiani, Georgian play writer, supported Mikahil Javakhishvili in his work on the play, saying that Kvachi was already a truly popular character. Maybe because of this popularity, Kvachi Kvachantiradze also became a main character of plays by other authors; however, the Mikail Ja- vakhishvili’s author’s rights were neglected. In 1927, together with Iveriumi two other plays with the same protagonist and same thematic appeared in the Rustaveli Theatre plans: American Uncle by Nikoloz Shiukashvili, and Uncle’s Sovietization, by Shalva Dadiani, which was an adapta- tion of the novel Kvachi Kvachantiradze.

According to the memoirs by Javakhishvili’s daughter Ketevan, the writer was worried about this situation. And indeed, the theatre postponed, and later cancelled staging Javakhisvili’s play, while two other plays were staged. The writer addressed the letters to Nikoloz Shikuashvili, Sandro Akhmeteli, and the first secretary of Georgian Communist Party Mikhail Kakhiani, with the request of solving this awkward situation; however his attempts could not lead to any results. The situation seems even more discomfiting considering the fact that Javakhishvili, besides being a popular writer, was himself sitting in the artistic board of the Rustaveli Theatre, and little later he became the representative of All-Soviet Dramatic Commit- tee in Georgia and Southern Caucasus; thus we can assume that the decision about neglecting his rights was made on the higher political levels, which were controlling also the cultural reality in Georgia.

They play was not staged neither in Kutaisi and nor in Batumi, and, most unfortunately, the text since was lost. Maybe the most important work by Javakhishvili, the novel Jaqo’s Dispossessed has not been adequately interpreted within drama versions while author’s lifetime, although, he was hap- py with his cooperation with the artist Soso Gabashvili, and liked cover design made by him for the second edition of the novel in 1926. In 1927, in Batumi and Kutaisi the theatrical performanc- es based on Javakhishvili’s famous novel had been offered to public. Batumi performance was the first, however, unsuccessful dramatization of Javakhishvili’s prose.

From writer’s personal letters we can assume that he has never seen the performance, which was conducted only two or three times in the end of theatrical season, and never became an event in Georgia’s cultural life. The same novel served as a basis for a screenplay by Shalva Soslani, which was suggested to one of Moscow film studios. Russian theatre director Nikolai Demidov was interested in the project, and preparatory works has been started, but the studio was closed down with the Soviet government decree. The story of possible theatre and film interpretation projects of another famous novel by Micheil Javakhishvili Arsena Marabdeli is most dramatic.

The novel openly refers to Georgia’s colonial status under the Russian power. The main protagonist Arsena, with his strong, heroic character, together with few other protagonists, represents the idea of Georgia’s freedom and people’s equity. Thanks to these qualities the novel was extremely interesting material for drama- tization. The theatre director George Namoradze shared with Javakhishvili and famous Georgian composer Zakharia Paliashvili the idea of creating an opera performance based on the novel. The work on libretto was started, but the idea never has been materialized. The relations with the Sakhkimretsvi, Georgian state film studio, were much more compli- cated.

Film director, Mikheil Chiaureli started working on film project together with the writer, but they had arguments, Javakhishvili was debarred from the project, and the screenplay was developed by Sandro Shanshiashvili. The writer was very upset with neglecting his role, and misinterpreting the main ideas of the novel. Exactly the same happened with the novel’s dramatization project at the Rustaveli Theatre. Sandro Akhmeteli started his work as a director, but finally again Sandro Shanshiashvili appeared as an author of the play. Mikhail Javajhishvili’s attempts of defending his rights were unsuccessful. The only case, when Javakhishvili was happy with the dramatization of his novel Arsena Marabdeli was the performance at the Youth Theatre.

The play was developed by Simon Mtvar- adze and Boris Gamrekeli with the writer’s permission. Javakhishvili liked the way of choosing relevant scenes from the novel, and he appreciated theatre director’s, Alexander Taqaishvili’s and Boris Gamrekeli’s work for achieving dynamism on the stage. After the 1937 purge the works by executed writer were dismissed from stages and screens. Only after his rehabilitation in the Thaw period the next phase of the dramatizations of Javakhish- vili’s prose has started in Georgia.

გამოქვეყნებულია ჟურნალში „სჯანი“, ტ. 12 (2011), გვ. 226–238. ნაშრომის გახსნა