“I can definitely say that my favourite performances from the international programme and the Showcase of this year’s Varna Summer Theatre Festival are “The Tempest” directed by Victor Bodo, “Triptych” by Ballet Arabesque and “Illusions” directed by Galin Stoev”, says Handan Salta, a critic, translator and organiser of TheatreIST Festival in Istanbul, Turkey, guest of the Showcase programme. 

I can definitely say that my favourite performances from the international programme and the Showcase of this year’s Varna Summer Theatre Festival were The Tempest directed by Victor Bodo, Triptych by Ballet Arabesque, and Illusions directed by Galin Stoev.

I particularly loved Ivan Viripaev’s text for Illusions! I’d like to contact him to arrange its translation into Turkish. I loved its sense of humour so much! You see, when you come to the Balkans, you should be prepared for many dramatic performances — often about war or, for instance, intense family tragedies, like the one we saw in Albion directed by Zafir Radjab. It’s always interesting for me to observe this tendency, not only in Bulgaria but across other Balkan countries too. It seems people here prefer Dostoyevsky to Chekhov, if you know what I mean. We even saw two performances based on Dostoyevsky: the monodrama Cries from the Underground directed by Stoyan Radev and The Fellowman’s Face directed by Margarita Mladenova. So watching Illusions afterwards had a profound effect — it made me feel lighthearted again.

The Tempest, directed by Victor Bodo, was full of irony and comical moments — I liked it very much.

Triptych by Ballet Arabesque was artistically, technically, and philosophically beautiful. I watched it with great delight and became very fond of it.

I should also comment on Albion. I like to call it “The Fake Chekhov.” The production spent a lot of money on the stage design, but it wasn’t used functionally. It had some meaning in the beginning, which worked well, but later on it could have been used in more imaginative ways. The lead actress’s voice was also constantly high-pitched, as if she were alarmed by something the entire time. Overall, they tried to create something amazing, but the result fell somewhat short of the ambition.

What I truly enjoyed was the showcase meeting for international guests. I think the organisers chose the perfect day for it — right in the middle of the Showcase, when almost everyone was present. By then we had already seen some performances and still had more to look forward to, so there was plenty of room for meaningful discussion. The timing was excellent.

I also appreciated Cries from the Underground. I stopped reading the surtitles halfway through because they were too fast, but luckily I already knew the material. The actor Yordan Rasin was outstanding — his talent carried the performance. He’s a truly great actor. I really enjoyed watching him. One-man shows are usually difficult for me, especially one as minimal as this — just a microphone and a chair. Yet even without following the text, he kept my attention completely fixed on him.

These are the performances that left the strongest impression on me. Thank you for the opportunity to see them.

Blagovest Asenov worked on the publication.