Young actors perform Nart Sagas in Georgian and Ossetian

Nart Sagas, one of the oldest Caucasus eposes, received its second life on a theatrical stage of Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film State Universityof Georgia. A group of young actors performed the ancient stories of courage, friendship and lovein Georgian and Ossetian languages.

The theatrical performance, which brought together over 100 representatives of the Georgian Government, civil society and international organizations, opened with welcome remarks from Dr. Naira Bepieva, Professor at Georgian-Ossetian Relations Research Centre of Iv.Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Chair of a non-governmental organization “Caucasian Mosaic”, and representatives of the European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Nart Sagas were adapted for the theatre in summer 2018 by the organization “Caucasian Mosaic”in collaboration with Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film State University of Georgia. The theatrical adaptation followed an illustrated Georgian-Ossetian edition of Nart Sagas for Children published in 2017.

The initiative was supported by the European Union (EU) and UNDP under their joint programme for building confidence between conflict-divided communities – Confidence Building Early Response Mechanism (COBERM).

Nart Sagas is one out of the190 confidence building initiatives supported under COBERM since 2010. Working closely with civil society organizations on all sides of conflict divides, the EU and UNDP addressed some of the key confidence building areas, such as youth education, people diplomacy, cultural cooperation, minority rights, gender equality, environment protection, healthcare and many more. The ongoing third phase of COBERM will be completed in December 2018.