Gus enjoys the international festival in between rehearsals

So here we are again! Another Tuesday night rolls in and I thought it might be time to drop another line or two. We've now been here in Tbilisi a whole fortnight. So that has the rare symmetry of meaning exactly two weeks in and four (or one calendar month) to go. I've often thought in the past that I was well used to going away for work. After all, whenever I've been offered a job, it's almost always meant packing a bag for a few weeks. This one's different though. We're much further away and for significantly longer than usual. And that's tough. I think we've all cracked the Skype phenomenon now and it's truly amazing to have technology like that at your fingertips, but it can't possibly substitute the real thing. Anyway, I'm sure it's no surprise, but I miss my Amy more than I can describe in any blog.



Mandras the puppet

 That said, I think we've all done some really good settling this last week. Personally, I'm now taking advantage of the odd afternoon off to see if I can get myself safely lost in the city. Annoyingly, not quite managed it yet. All roads seem to lead to Freedom. - Freedom Square, that is. Though I'm sure the broader meaning's true too. We're well into the second half of the play, which I'm sure we're all pretty glad about, since we open - like it or not - two weeks tomorrow. And I've had the chance to see some of the wide array of international theatre available in the festival. To be more specific, I saw an, erm, interesting Woyzcek at the Georgian Music Centre. The generally young crowd couldn't seem to decide if they were thrilled or horrified at the sight of the naked breasts and man-on-man snogging. As I said, interesting. And then last night we saw George Mann give his one-man Odyssey at the Music and Drama Theatre. I don't know - or care - if anyone else shared my reaction, but I was transfixed. Totally without clutter. Clean, clear, entertaining and exciting. I'd happily go again and was so grateful and pleasantly surprised to come across it at all.

Anyhoo, that's all from me for now.

Maybe more this time next week - the big fat HALFWAY POINT!!!

Gus.