Zhaklin Dobreva talks to Ivan Dodovski from North Macedonia – Professor of Critical Theory and Comparative Literature at University American College Skopje and President of Eurodram – about his impressions of the festival programme and the performances ‘Triptych’, ‘Cries from the Underground’, ‘The Tempest’ and ‘The Fellowman’s Face’, as well as the importance of cultural exchange between different languages, stages and cultures.

Mr Dodovski, could you briefly introduce yourself and share your impressions of the performances from the festival’s programme you have seen so far?

I am Professor at University American College Skopje, where I teach critical theory and comparative literature. I am also President of Eurodram – the European Network for Drama in Translation. It is a large international network, founded in 2001 by Maison d’Europe et d’Orient and based in Paris. Its main mission is to support the circulation of contemporary dramatic texts through translation, publication and, of course, stage production. Eurodram encourages the translation and staging of plays from Europe, Central Asia and the Mediterranean, making them accessible both to theatre professionals and to audiences. The network is organised into language committees. Each committee works with a particular language and, every two years, selects three texts – with the cycles alternating between new original plays and translations of plays. The selected texts are recommended for translation, publication and stage production in other countries and linguistic contexts.

I am very glad that I finally have the opportunity to be in Varna. This is my first time attending the Varna Summer International Theatre Festival, and my impressions are truly very positive. What I can say is that it features an exceptionally diverse, rich and carefully selected programme. It includes different types of theatre, different aesthetics and different stage languages. 

I was particularly impressed by the ballet performance Triptych, as well as by the extraordinary acting energy in the solo performance Cries from the Underground. Both performances, each in its own way, revealed powerful forms of theatrical play and expression. At first glance, they work with simple, minimalist means, reduced almost to the essential, without major external effects. Yet it is precisely in this apparent simplicity that their power and impact can be found. This made a particularly strong impression on me.

I also followed the other performances in the programme with great attention. The Tempest by Shakespeare, directed by Hungarian theatre maker Viktor Bodó, for example, offered a very consistent deconstructivist approach – not only to the play itself, but also to the very act of theatrical performance. And The Tempest is a text with an exceptionally strong metatheatrical dimension. In this production, that dimension was brought out clearly and convincingly from beginning to end. For me, as someone who teaches a course on Shakespeare and works on this play with students, it was especially interesting to see yet another possible reading, another stage version of this text.

And what do you think of the performance The Fellowman’s Face, which you have just seen?

In this performance, Dostoevsky is completely stripped of any additional theatrical effects. In my view, the production is conceived very simply, with the clear intention of reaching the essence of the text and its messages. It is, above all, a verbal theatre – with minimal stage gestures and movements – which seeks to tell a well-known story: the story of Prince Myshkin and the question of “the idiot”, that is, of the person who carries Christian goodness, but who in this world seems inevitably destined to end up mocked, humiliated and destroyed.

In my opinion, this is a performance with a rather traditional aesthetic. There is no demonstrative experiment or radically new stage language in it. But this does not mean that it fails to convey its messages. On the contrary – it is precisely the minimalism, this absence of unnecessary visual, scenic or acoustic details, that leaves space for thought. It leaves space for immersion in the text itself and in its deeper questions.

I am somewhat familiar with the work of Sfumato, insofar as their productions have toured not only in Bulgaria over the years. I know that they have their own type of aesthetic, their own stage language. That is why it was interesting for me to see The Fellowman’s Face precisely in the context of the festival programme in Varna – a programme which this year presents many different theatrical directions and different ways of thinking about the stage.

I am also especially happy that both the festival and the programme of the Varna Theatre include a production directed by Dejan Projkovski, who is a Macedonian director. I am looking forward to this encounter with great interest, and I cannot wait to see the performance.

As President of Eurodram, how do you see the exchange between Bulgarian and Macedonian dramaturgy?

Unfortunately, we still do not have enough cooperation, translation and exchange. Very little contemporary Bulgarian drama, especially new writing, is staged in Macedonia, and the reverse is also true – Macedonian authors rarely reach Bulgarian stages.

I can say that fifteen or twenty years ago the situation was different. There were more Bulgarian directors working in Macedonia, and vice versa. There were also dramatic texts that crossed the border. I think this needs to be restored; something has to be done in this direction.

For example, Hristo Boytchev was a very popular author among us – translated and staged. But Bulgarian dramaturgy is not limited to one name. It is developing, and it would be a pity if its new authors were not discovered. The same applies in the opposite direction – there have been Macedonian authors staged in Bulgarian theatres, but today such cases seem to be rarer.

Theatre needs such encounters – between languages, between cultures, between different theatrical traditions. And festivals such as Varna Summer create precisely this kind of space.