Theatre Record 2004, Issue 24 - 2004, Ian Herbert (see original article)

Similar attitudes in Bulgaria

Immediately afterwards I found myself checking out some very similar attitudes in Bulgaria.  A few nights in Plovdiv's Drama Theatre, the oldest of 54 in the country, again presented a picture of a theatre that is alive to current issues, even if choosing classic local plays and contemporary foreign ones to demonstrate it.  The Plovdiv theatre annoys its colleagues in Sofia, the capital, by regularly walking away with their country's theatre awards, and its 17-strong permanent company is enjoying particular success under its director, Emil Gonev and his bright young assistant Petar Kaukov.  I saw two contrasting productions by Kaukov, the first being Closer To Earth, by the Serbian playwright Zeljko Hubac, which superimposed a racy story of post-Bosnian conflict gangsterism to one set in the aftermath of another war, that between Serbia and Bulgaria in 1885.  The subdued, cinematic playing of the actors in this piece contrasted remarkably with their terrific full-out comedy in Kaukov's adaptation of Bai Ganyo, based on stories about the rise to political power (and, in this version, the European Union aspirations) of a Bulgarian cheeky chappie, somewhat reminiscent of the Czech Schweyk.  Nikolai Grimov well deserved his best actor award in the title role, though I was less certain about the best actress - and indeed best production - award given to the third show, The Mother-In-Law, an over-the-top expressionist updating by Marius Kirkinski of another Bulgarian favourite, by Anton Strasimirov.  What was most heartening was that all three plays were enjoyed hugely by a predominantly young audience.  They were played on simple, black-curtained sets which spoke of the difficult economic situation in Bulgarian theatre (which has yet to hear of lighting design as a profession), but the quality of the acting, and in particular Petar Kaukov's clever command of stage space in his direction, more than made up for any primitiveness of technology.