The Eighth Life

production
The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is the stage adaptation of the novel by Georgian author Nino Haratischwili. A monumental family epic spanning six generations, from 1900 to the present. The story, following eight lives within a single Georgian family, begins in a small town in Georgia. In the coldest winter of the early twentieth century, Stasia is born, the daughter of an ambitious chocolate manufacturer. Generations later, Nitsa, Stasia’s great-great-granddaughter, lives in Berlin. With wit, irony, and humor, she tells the sweeping and often dramatic history of her family — a history inseparable from that of the ‘Red’ twentieth century: the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the Iron Curtain.

design
Georgia lies in the Caucasus, the highest mountain range in Europe — a landscape that carries the weight of history. Its environment shapes the identity of the people who live there, yet the mountains remain indifferent to human suffering. In a stunning landscape, terrible events can unfold. These mountains link the country’s history to the family’s story. They form a bridge between heaven and earth, symbols of obstacles and challenges, and are said to host mystical appearances, as in many myths and legends. At the heart of this eternal landscape is a patchwork of memories from domestic family life. The visual language draws inspiration from the Russian avant-garde and Soviet socialism: the so-called ‘design of the revolution’. Constructivism, with its abstractions, collages, and combination of text, image, and material — reminiscent of early film montage — allows for rapid shifts in time and place. The LED screens work in the same way: they display documentary fragments, create the stage design for Brilka’s pop concert, represent the fences of the Gulag, or the ravine where the family ultimately disappears — back into the mountains.