Shakespeare’s Tyrants: from Text to Stage

ABSTRACT The aim of the present article is to study the transformation, which Shakespeare's text undergoes from original into translation and finally for the stage adaptation; namely the interpretation of Shakespeare's famous tyrants (Richard III, Claudius, King Lear, Julius Caesar) by an acclaimed Georgian theatre director Robert Sturua (b. 1938) at The Rustaveli Theatre, Tbilisi. For this purpose four plays by Shakespeare “King Lear”, “Richard III”,“Hamlet” and “Julius Caesar” have been studied. A comparative analysis of the original text and the translation as well as the text of the staged performance reveals the main tendencies apparent in the interpretation. The scenic adaptations of the Shakespeare's plays show that Shakespeare's highly suggestive text often becomes a means to discuss political problems and represent the currents issues of the Soviet and Post-Soviet period: the dictatorial state, the perversion of power. At the same time stage directing endeavours to represent these problems as universal. The article deals with the examples of transformation, interesting interpretations and techniques that Robert Sturua usesto represent these characters.