Company E, the Movement Theater of Tbilisi and the U.S. Embassy Tbilisi present THE CRIMSON FISH, premiering in May 2027 in Tbilisi and Batumi, Georgia. Exact performance dates and venues will be announced.

Company E and Movement Theater will co-create a visually imaginative one-hour work for children, families and intergenerational audiences. A young prince releases a rare crimson fish rather than allow it to be killed to cure his father’s blindness. Banished for that act of compassion, he crosses rivers, cities and mountains with a mysterious musical companion. Only after he learns to listen, cooperate and value another life does he discover that the companion is the fish he saved—and that kindness can restore a different kind of sight.

The source is the Georgian tale Gulambara and Sulambara, published in Marjory Wardrop’s 1894 English-language collection. The historic version contains beheadings, coercion and troubling treatment of women and is not suitable for a contemporary children’s production without substantial adaptation. This project retains the tale’s distinctive opening, crimson fish, chonguri-playing companion, journey, riddle and return of kindness while developing a new family-centered dramatic path under Georgian leadership.

Core proposition: We learn to see clearly when we recognize the value of lives beyond our own. Compassion is not lost; it travels, changes form and returns.

THE CRIMSON FISH follows Company E and Movement Theater’s 2019 collaboration, A Tamada in Manhattan.