She found herself in the theatre without being
aware of it. She found her way to the Theatre
Institute by asking passers by to show her
the way. Everything happened at the expense
of fear and stress… Today it was her that we paid a
visit to  the Rustaveli Theatre actress,
Nino Kasradze.

   - Nino, the appearance of your generation on the stage coincided with a rather tough time. One can say that it was a somewhat “inappropriate age”. Who was your heroine at that time, what were her values and what message did she have to communicate to her audience?
   - I don't know how my “heroine” managed to live through this “age of inappropriateness” and pass this ten-year test. Years are still necessary in order for my heroines to demonstrate in an “orderly arranged” situation whether they have survived or not and whether we have managed to establish ourselves as a generation. It is not false criticism that makes me speak like that. The themes of the day have changed completely and our attitude towards reality and our profession has also changed. At the beginning of my career when I was working at a terrific pace, I was not even thinking of what I was saying or why I was appearing on the stage. The situation was so difficult that the act of appearing on the stage and attempting to communicate a message equalled bravery. The vacuum was so big that anything could have been said and everything sounded important: the appeal to anarchy or the struggle against anarchy. Now it is much more difficult, the responsibility is much greater. One must think, exercise a lot of caution and demonstrate a great deal of professionalism. People are tired of spontaneous actions, ingenuous naivety, the “naive” actions typical of youth, proving that it does not matter if we do not possess acting technique and knowledge because we are driven by earnest emotions. The time of terrible and cruel professionalism is coming. You won't be able to achieve anything solely by emotions. Now it will become clear which lessons each of us has learnt, what kind of a “school” each of us has “created” for ourselves.

   - What do you mean by new themes?
   - The eternal themes delivered in a new form. A savage form does not justify itself today. Nostalgia for a normal way of life and “well-packaged”, warm relationships have emerged in society. It is necessary to overcome chaos; continuous chaos is exhausting.

   - What do you consider a savage form?
   - For instance, even a “Sichuan” type and myself in “Sichuan”. I am strongly convinced that this stage has gone. Sturua is constantly searching for something new; he has an ingenious skill of perceiving the contemporary. He does not need to travel for that. He finds and sees new methods and forms immediately…
   Today everything is speeded up. The pace of quest, living on the stage and artistic thought are all accelerated. When we were working on “Twelfth Night”, Sturua required a new spoken language from everyone. This sent us into shock and all of us found it very difficult. He was telling me: Now it is not the time for “relating” a story in the old way, nobody is interested in that. Everything should change inside; a new motion, a new impulse and a new charge should originate from within. Almost as it happens in the movie “Run, Lola, Run” where the action and the plot “compete” with each other and “overtake” each other. In this speedy run there is one serious danger, though: the message to be conveyed and the form should not seize you to the extent that you forget the main thing. A real spiritual purity is required for that.

   - The new challenges must have made you think of the necessity of the school…
    - The heroine of the 90s was so frank; she was willing to use herself up so much… And she did get used up. This was followed by confusion - a peculiar crisis… For three years, between the roles in the “Snake Woman” and “Twelfth Night”, I did not play a single role. However, the role in the “Twelfth Night” helped me to leap fifteen steps forward making me appreciate the new sense of craftsmanship.
   First of all, I was lucky to work with very good actors and, secondly, I was seized with the desire of learning. I wanted to prove to myself and to everyone else that I was capable of overcoming such complexities as well. This was the first case when I could say: I made a decision and I made it happen. Prior to that, throughout many years I kept acting so that I had no clue what emerged from what. At times I read things about my role in a critical article that surprise me. For instance, I have read in Victor Gulchenko's article that in “Macbeth” I am holding a coat as if it were a child that I am rocking in a cradle. I have never realized that.

   - What was the reason for such “lack of knowledge”?
   - The same “naivety”, I guess.  I was 24. I managed to develop some of Lady Macbeth's qualities only with Sturua's help. Now I look back at myself with surprise  how much impudence I should have had when I said: “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here… Come to my woman's breasts and take my milk for gall…” - It would be the same if I had thrust my little Salome on the ground. I am sure that today I would not be able to do all that so thoughtlessly, without experiencing a deep perception of what I ought to do. One cannot play this role relying solely on emotion. When I say this, I am by no means belittling the play and my part in it. I wouldn't be able to do that anyway only because this was Sturua's decision… I perform the whole monologue in three minutes and the audience does not even have the time to appreciate it and come to its senses. It is through pauses that you are trying to pretend to spectators - says Sturua. Swiftness has a different loading, it attacks the audience differently and you, you are not thinking yourself - you are forcing the audience to think.

   - What you are saying implies the existence of a certain technique, a certain method. One might say that it is the theory of a certain emotional attack, a shock, an assault. And now you are gripped by the desire to switch to a more rational, “calm” theatre…
   - Most important is the fact that Sturua's message has also changed. If the Macbeths used to interface on the stage for three hours and had plenty of time to settle their problems, in Sturua's theatre of today, which is more collage-like, everything must happen in a second. In “Twelfth Night” and in “Hamlet” everything should be handled as a filigree work, simultaneously retaining this “attack”. All that has nearly turned me into a disabled person in “Twelfth Night”.

   - This means that the work is accompanied by a psychological stress …
   - Didn't I say I was on the verge of turning into an invalid? Viola was supposed to be a strong and mysterious woman. Some kind of big mystery originates from her. Viola does not want to put female clothing on any more and she must deny her own self if life is like that, if everything happens upside down. She is the child of the XXI century and she takes everything upon herself. All issues are brought up in this play: those of women, men, men and women, war and peace; simply emancipation…
   It is again at the expense of Georgian talent that the actor of the new age could be created. If you follow Sturua, if you feel and guess what he demands from you, what he can give you…
   They say that Zaza Papuashvili, Levan Berikashvili, Amiran Amiranashvili and Goga Gvelesiani are very good in a new performance (which I have not seen) ….

   - A drastic change has taken place in your life. What experience have you gained from that?
    - Patience is something that my child has taught me. I must be patient in the morning, I must be tolerant in the evening, I must be enduring at night… I don't sleep at all. She is very emotional and extremely curious. Her emotionalism is not surprising, though - she takes after her parents.

   - It is believed that an actor should be prominent in ordinary life as well.
   - Of course. I am a very disorderly person. I told myself recently: Nino, if you go out like that in the street, your actress' life shall be over! An actress must be distinguished by the fact that she is an actress. I am striving to achieve that but I've had no success yet. Perhaps I'll be able to make it by the age of 50. Perhaps I'll manage to change to such an extent that everyone will realize that I am an actress. Do you know what the Armenians said when they were watching my trial shots and approved me for the movie? - She is nothing much in life but she looks good on the screen.

   - I can set your mind at rest and tell you that in this case the taste of Georgians and Armenians does not match, it is different indeed!
   How did the idea of becoming an actress come to your mind?
    - I simply found myself in a theatre without being aware of it. My mother and I did not even know the address of the Theatre Institute. We kept asking on the way; it is embarrassing to acknowledge it. I hadn't prepared for it. Everything happened at the expense of terrible fear and tremendous stress. You had to put a tight black tricot on an undeveloped body, go out onto the stage, play an etude, read a fable…  I felt awkward all the time. The first of September was also a real torture. What will they say? What will they think? What am I like? What if I go there? What if I sit down here? But at the same time, there is also a faith in yourself, which lives somewhere inside of you. You start making friends, someone is fond of you, you start getting somewhere. Before that I had drawn up a list of people and against the name of each of them I used to put pluses and minuses depending on the success of my communication with them. They used to tell me I resembled a big, strict woman. I had myself locked up in terrible armour. I lived like a true Spartan.
   By the way, I have noticed that whatever I put a lot of energy into, I achieve a good result. I have even developed a special system of strengthening my will power without mastering any particular technique, though. All this happened to be within me. This method has not proved to be correct on the stage, however, giving me a poor result. Everything was set within limits, I have lost my spontaneity. I have realized that an actor does not need any psycho-energetic exercises. If you undertake such, you will turn yourself into a lonely, solitary warrior building a deliberate isolation around yourself.

   - There is much of mythology and mystery in your repertoire. Have you ever sensed that?
   - Of course I have. Sometimes I didn't even know what it was. In “Macbeth”, for example, I managed to avoid it easily and you know, apparently, Sturua has one extraordinary quality. He takes everything negative and mystical and places it on himself, protecting the actor. This was also the case with “Macbeth”. I recall once someone reprimanding us for not being able to perform well enough. I answered to that: It was not that I was unable to perform well, I did not perform at all. When the level of frankness is a thousand percent, an awful thing might happen!
   There are also other plays where the experience of mystery is very sharp as well, for example, in “Lamara” or “Twelfth Night”. There is something peculiar about the stage: something materializes on it and then it accompanies you all the time. Almost everything that I have performed well and wherever I have managed to “open up”, has become my destiny. Experience tells you not to “open up” like that, because such openness deteriorates the quality of your work. When I referred to the “savageness” earlier, this is exactly what I meant.

   - The spectators watch the play on the stage. Is any “performance” played for the actors?
   - There is one actress who notices everything from the stage: your mother, your uncle, your aunt - she can see everyone in the stalls. I can't. I detest packed auditoria and I love it when the audience is not numerous. In a packed auditorium there is almost no room left for sound and emotion, there is nowhere you can address your message. You can't see the faces; some kind of a common mass is resisting you, suffocating you. Everything gets back to you instantaneously and bounces badly off you. When the audience is not numerous, you are seized by an absolutely different sensation - that of breadth and freedom. It is a real spectator who even puts up with the poor conditions to have a chance of seeing the play.
   What else do I usually look at?  Well, I am a very frequent “dead body” on stage. I lie on the stage, look around myself and watch what is going on. How beautiful the stage and the auditorium are! I have my angels of different colors. Do you know what else I also love and what amazes me? At the very top, from the sides of the circles people often hang down and I keep wondering what they can see from there. I recall that this was how I watched Calderon and the only thing I could see were Zaza's outstretched arms. In “Lamara” I am coming down and from there I can see what the audience is doing. They don't know that I am supposed to descend and I keep thinking: Now you will see me! - All of a sudden they notice me and everybody starts to look in my direction: first the upper circles and then the stalls. I have the right to watch them, because I am a stranger - “an extraterrestrial”. People resemble sparrows and the stage looks so beautiful - so open and wide.

   - What is the magic of the theatre? Does a religious feeling seize the actor?
   - That is a very intimate question. Since an actor is a human being, he should believe in God. In my opinion, being religious means obeying the rules and customs. It is very difficult for an actor to be a truly religious person. If you are an ardent believer, you won't be able to stay on the stage because a host of taboos exist there, which you are obliged to break.  This is a terrible dilemma in my life; I suffer a lot from that. There are people who are able to combine such things. They believe that one does not impede the other. I cannot agree with that. Everything has a rule of its own - so do both the theatre and religion. In the theatre you take on a huge responsibility. Once Gogi Kharabadze gave a very good response to this question: I will never fully transform into the role I play because in such a way I will not oppose the church; I am an interpreter and I always retain my “ego”. When you get into someone else's skin, you transform yourself into a different person and by doing so you break the regularity. I shall always stay at the threshold beyond which someone else's soul gets agitated. - I fully agree with Gogi on that. An actor needs talent and acting technique in order not to cross the prohibited border, to avoid the story of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This is where the church comes in. It safeguards us and cautions us from that. That is why I like it when the producer's idea serves a good cause. The sense of responsibility in me grows with age. I have never been a prude, I have never lacked boldness. But now, I keep thinking at times whether it would be possible to do without all this? That is why when I watch movies or some plays, a thought occurs to me more and more often telling me that I would not be able to play in this performance.

   - The contemporary age sends new unusual challenges to actors such as advertising, for instance.
    - Good advertisement is real art, indeed. We have also attained certain achievements in this area - humor and brevity. However, I am very careful with this sphere and I truly have no intention of accepting all the offers. I can't even imagine what I can advertise. Magti is an exceptional case. When I was shot in the Magti advert, there had been almost no experience in this business. Therefore, we had to work very hard. We had to observe the limits and the sense of proportion and find an appropriate format. Advertising has yet another peculiarity - it is truly public and universal. We were staying in Likani for a holiday. My husband had to speak incessantly on his cell phone. It seems that the other holiday-makers also noticed that. A little girl ran up to me and said: Hasn't the story of your advert come true?!
   A small jubilee film followed this advert. These shots turned out to be much more interesting and manifold. We filmed in the sea and in the mountains. The crew was also splendid. They were trying to develop a creative approach to their job. I would again reiterate that I view advertising very cautiously and I will probably refuse to advertise anything else.
   Cinema provides much ampler opportunities. But, unfortunately, nothing much is being done in our country in this respect. It has not even been possible to show my work in Chaldranian's movie “The symphony of silence” in Georgia. And in the meantime, this movie has been presented at numerous prestigious festivals. My sister, who lives in France, told me that a huge poster displaying my picture was displayed at Saint Michelle. I do hope that by the end of the day Georgians will also be given the opportunity to see this movie.