War brings destruction and devastation in its wake. It breaks roads, destroys bridges, loves, divides the united. Literally and figuratively. "The war is a traumatic epidemic," says the genius of human medicine, the Russian Nikolai Pirogov. A time that gives birth to our pains tomorrow. And if until recently we could easily point to art as a cure for any mental trauma, today this bridge seems to be in the target, as well. And we should have known better, having passed this way!
"Courage: a great Russian word suitable for the children's language of our children, pure and free" - Anna Akhmatova *
Just a few days ago, another performance of "Anna. Augmented reality. Rehearsal" - the latest play by Mayia Pramatarova took place. The one-actor show with the participation of the actress Linda Ruseva is the work of the director Katya Petrova and the set designer Tita Dimova-Vantek. The text, written on the eve of the war with Ukraine, was inspired by the Silver Age of Russian culture (connected with modernism, from the end of the 19th century to the 1920s and 1930s), the emigration of the intelligentsia from the country , known as "Philosophical steamer", and of course from the life of one of the greatest poets of that time and after - Anna Akhmatova.
The author Mayia Pramatarova herself is a true theatrical cosmopolitan. Playwright, theater scholar, translator and director, she spent the last 13 years of her life between Bulgaria, the USA and Russia, where until recently she was part of the team of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Moscow. She knows well the skill of stage conversation with time.
"There is a need not only to articulate the performance itself, in which there are some references between the time now and the time a century ago, but also, as it were, to say everything that happened and why it is repeated in this way. The reason for writing the play was the life of Anna Akhmatova. The idea was to tell about the life of one of the greatest poets during the Silver Age through her personal stories, her love affairs with the artist Amedeo Modigliani, with the poet and her husband Nikolai Gumilyov, through her trepidation related to the cities of Paris and Petersburg. But as if this personal story pushed us away and focused us in the time that is cruel enough to its poets, the time of philosophical steamboats, when not only philosophers, but also economists, engineers, intellectuals leave Russia. And in an eerie way, that sounds so contemporary and relevant right now. I deal with theater and the impossibility of freely expressing yourself without being sanctioned was a reason for many directors to leave Russia. Some stayed, their fate is not very easy," says Maya Pramatarova.
Not like in a movie, war breaks roots. Just a few days ago, a theatrical reading with elements of a performance of the play "Finist - The Clear Falcon" translated by Maya Pramatarova and Ilya Zlatanov, with director Vasilena Radeva and the participation of actresses Stanka Kalcheva and Bogdana Kotareva, was presented for the first time in Sofia . The event is part of a project in defense of the authors of the play, the playwright Svetlana Petriychuk and the director Zhenya Berkovich, who were arrested in Russia.
"Their performance received a Golden Mask award for 2022, and now, in a paradoxical way, what they were awarded for is a reason to be accused now following a slander. They are currently in pre-trial detention, and despite the support of many people, actors and public figures in Russia and Europe, they are still there. So the picture is very complex”, says Maya Pramatarova, noting the cultural tolerance and dialogical nature of the Bulgarian scene.
"Where does art end and where does life begin?" is one of the postulated questions in the play "Anna. Augmented reality. Rehearsal". The performance itself, which is played in an unconventional place in the Sofia-based gallery "Credo Bonum", gives a wide field for thoughts and passions. Maya admits that the audience is always more than expected and stays after the "curtain drop". "They stay for a conversation, which is sometimes almost as long as the performance itself," she says.
Today, Pramatarova's nostalgia and concerns are mostly related to when and how each of us will be able to be there again, in Russia. For her personally, cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow are very much connected to her education and the friendships she left behind. She admits that she is not in a position to outline the macro-framework of the consequences of what is happening, because the picture is changing extremely quickly and abruptly. But on a personal, human level, she is convinced of one thing: "I will always be connected to this culture. And I hope that the situation, the time apart, will not last that long."
*The performance "Anna. Augmented reality. Rehearsal" can be seen in Burgas on October 20 within the 13th edition of the festival of the Bulgarian physical and visual theater "Age of Aquarius".
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Photos: Facebook/ Mayia Pramatarova, Kaya Hristova, Facebook/НЧ „Читалище.то“
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