Jacqueline Dobreva speaks with director Nadya Pancheva about the play “Anna The Incorrigible”, a production of Orenda Art Centre and Toplocentrala Regional Centre for Contemporary Arts in Sofia, part of the Showcase programme.
What drew you to Stefano Massini’s play, and what motivated you to stage it in Bulgaria, the first country in Eastern Europe brave enough to give this text a stage?
The proposal to stage the play came from producer Kremena Dimitrova. A friend of hers had seen a production of Massini’s play in Brussels and immediately reached out to her with a request to find a way to bring this text to Bulgaria. Kremena contacted me just as Dimitar Angelov and I were in Berlin, researching details and stories about the Stasi for our play “I Am My Own Wife”. By the way, if you Google “Stasi” today, one of the first results you’ll get is related to the revelations about Putin’s collaboration with the Ministry of State Security in East Germany in the past. However, he is not the subject or antagonist of our play. The focus is on the personality that emerges out of the documentary material. Beyond this name stands a much larger structure with deeper historical roots, which, in the theatrical context, mutates in a completely different way, carrying a new charge, transcending specific names and events. At least, in our team, we always strive to go beyond mere factuality.
A deeper exploration of the impact of these repressive systems on individuals and entire societies, with their metastases that shape thought patterns, made me certain that such a story is worth to be presented on the stage. Unblocking the energy flow of suppressed voices, which carry resistance and truth, is not merely a sufficient reason to take on a drama text; it’s a cause to stand for something that goes beyond the conventional efforts of a team to stitch together a production, as often happens – somewhat routinely.
Moreover, staging this text in Bulgarian context is a conscious gesture – not only artistic but also cultural and civic. Giving the stage to Anna Politkovskaya here means giving a stage to a trauma that is not foreign but deeply ours, often left unspoken. That is why our team believes that Bulgaria not only can but should be the first country in this geographical and cultural region to dare to listen.
How did you approach building this emotional hybrid between Anna Politkovskaya’s personal, vulnerable truth and the broader social message that her life and fate carry? How, in collaboration with actress Nevena Kaludova, were you able to capture both her human delicacy and her unyielding inner strength as a symbol of resistance and morality?
Nevena Kaludova embodies both fragility and immense strength. What’s more important is that Nevena possesses the personal qualities and the strength of character to construct Anna’s persona. She doesn’t just “play a role”; she stands behind positions, behind causes, with her thoughts and commitment. This is not something played in the classic sense of the word. It is interpreted, experienced, and subjected to doubt in a constant intellectual flow. It’s a very difficult acting process, one that isn’t often encountered here because such tasks are not common, and it’s hard to adequately assess the work involved in such a role. She has often shared in interviews that she prepared for this performance for an entire year. By the time we met, she was already carrying Anna within her. In her gestures, in her determination, in her search for a deeper truth, even in the rehearsal process. As a team, we were always of the opinion that we had to work to create Anna’s image by pulling it as much as possible toward her most vulnerable essence – as a woman, a mother, a fragile human being. This stands in contrast to the events, places, and cruelties that she endures, making the picture even more brutal and impactful. We relied on this contrast for a more powerful effect on the audience.
What was your idea for the set design of the play, and how did you collaborate with the artist Yasmin Mandeli to achieve it, especially considering the use of multimedia and elements such as mapping and sculptural construction?
I’m not one of those directors who claim to “dream” their work and then translate irrational impulses into theatrical language, but in this case, it happened exactly like that. In this play, which is beyond the laws of the unities of time, space, and action, it’s crucial how the overall image of the production is constructed. This decision isn’t just aesthetic; it determines the entire theatrical language of the production. The author doesn’t give any clear instructions; the text is a typical postdramatic piece. This stage of the work process coincided with the dismantling of the Soviet Army Monument in Sofia. On the verge of an afternoon nap, clearly influenced by these events, the monumental, massive hollow head appeared to me, and I simply saw one of the scenes of the play. I immediately called Yasmin, and it turned out she was watching a documentary film at that moment, where a huge monument of Stalin’s head was lying on its side. That’s how it all began. After that, Yasmin developed the idea both functionally and aesthetically. The mapping came later, during the rehearsal process. At first, I wanted the body of the woman killed in Anna Politkovskaya’s block to be present throughout the entire play as an enigma to which we would return at the end, but I didn’t have the right tool. Together with Nevena Kaludova, who had to interact with this tool, we began searching for different options, and eventually, we arrived at this one. That’s when Nevena Vasileva, our mapping collaborator, joined the team.
Do you, as a director and a citizen, feel a sense of “irreparability” similar to what is implied in the title? Is it possible to make political or socially engaged art that is not doomed or martyr-like?
Engaged art does not have to be martyr-like. I think this image of the sufferer, the lost idealist, is a romantic trap. Art can be active, ironic, curious, radical, and resistive without self-pity. To live with open senses to the cruelty of the world does not mean being powerless.
So yes, I do feel irreparability. And I believe that an artist’s engagement is not heroism, but an act of presence – vulnerable yet effective.
“Anna The Incorrigible” by Stefano Massini on 9 June, 18:00, State Puppet Theatre – Varna.