Rezo Gabriadze Marionette Theater
0.87 mi / 1.41 km from the hotel
Rezo Gabriadze was one of Georgia's great artists — a painter, sculptor, writer, and film-maker whose scripts gave Soviet cinema some of its best-loved films. In 1981 he built a theatre for puppets, and it became the work he is most loved for at home.
The building is unmistakable: a small brick tower that leans like something from a fairy tale, set with a clock and a tiny stage. On the hour an angel emerges to strike a bell, and twice a day a sequence of figures plays out a brief, wordless drama of birth, love, and age. People gather in the lane below to watch.
Inside, the marionettes perform plays Gabriadze wrote himself — tender, funny, and often heartbreaking stories told with hand-carved figures, scraps of music, and almost no words. They hold children easily and adults more deeply; it is not unusual to leave with damp eyes.
