Magdana’s Blue Donkey

Ekaterine Gabashvili

Directed by Nika Chikvaidze

Set Design: Anano Dolidze

Costume Design: Anano Dolidze

Choreographer: Kote Furtseladze

Composer/Music arrangement: Nika Chikvaidze

Director’s Assistant: Nata Arveladze

Duration: 80 minutes
Genre: Drama

Premiered on: 28/11/2025
Artistic Director: Dimitri Gvtisiashvili

Cast:

Khatuna Berdzenishvili,
Natia Kupatadze,
Nika Khrikuli,
Nino Papiashvili,
Rati Navadze,
Asmat Kurtsikidze,
Gabriel Jojua,
Alexandra Bashaleishvili,
Andria Ekizashvili,
Nino Gelazonia,
Lea Devsurashvili

About Performance

“Magdana’s Blue Donkey” uses the language of buffoonery to tell the story of a poor woman struggling to protect her children in a harsh, unforgiving world.

This is a story about human dignity—and the fragile inner light a person maintains against all odds. Though worn down by life, crushed by poverty, and abandoned by the indifference of society, Magdana remains unbowed. She becomes a victim of cruel social pressures, yet she does not break. Through sheer endurance, self-sacrifice, and tireless labor, Magdana rises above her suffering to boldly challenge her fate.

Press

The director preserves the original classical text while reinterpreting its central message through a contemporary visual and semantic language. The staging transforms the story from a simple tragedy into a sharp critique of systemic injustice. The author, Ekaterine Gabashvili, originally revealed how social inequality destroys the poor and the powerless; here, the performance exposes how the "law" masquerades as equal for everyone, though this equality is merely a cruel illusion.

Bringing these themes to the forefront, the production explores the human condition far beyond the immediate struggle of a mother and her children. It portrays the individual trapped within an institutional machine—tracing a path that stretches from centuries past into the present day, revealing a cycle of motion that yields no real progress.