More than a century old show by the Irish Nobel laureate and Oscar winner Bernard Shaw, which the world-famous actor and director John Malkovich is staging in Sofia at the moment, is marked as anti-Bulgarian.
At first glance, it sounds like a joke, but Bulgarian nationalists and the Union of Bulgarian Writers labeled the 120-year-old work "Arms and Man" as "anti-Bulgarian", seeing it as a threat Bulgarian national pride, writes the Bulgarian service of Radio Free Europe (RSE)
Criticism was directed at Malkovich himself, who has directed and acted several times on the Bulgarian theater stage in recent years, which is a great rarity for the country. The director rejected the association's claims and replied that the attacks on him and the play were not "a very intelligent idea".
Malkovič also reminded that the Union of Bulgarian Writers, by order of the party, excluded from its membership the most famous dissident from the time of socialism in Bulgaria.
Even before the protest of the artistic collective, several nationalist organizations, which in the past participated in anti-migrant events, decided to organize a protest demanding that the play be removed from the repertoire. theaters. They also claim that the work is an "insult" and "mockery" of the people and the army, and support their views with quotes.
What is the problem?
What is so offensive about the performance of the Irish Nobel laureate that it has fueled nationalist sentiments?
The news that the play "The Gun and the Man" will be staged under the direction of John Malkovich was announced during the summer at the National Theatre.
At the end of September, several nationalist organizations - "VZRO Vrtop", "National Awakening", "Mladi za Bulgaria" and "Kuberovi ratnici" - began to be active on the occasion of this event.
The organizations insist that the play be removed from the theater's repertoire. They also sent an open letter to President Rumen Radev and Minister of Culture Nayden Todorov.
In addition, they spread photos of Bulgarian actors participating in the play, with the caption "shame".
These organizations quote various parts of the play, and one of them, spoken by one of the main male characters, reads:
"These new customs are not good. All that washing is not good for health, it is not natural. There was an Englishman in Plovdiv who washed himself with cold water every morning as soon as he got up. Disgusting! All this comes from the English: their climate makes them so dirty that they have to be constantly washed. Look at my father! He didn't bathe all his life, and he lived to be 98 - he was the healthiest man in Bulgaria. It's not a problem for me to wash once a week for the sake of others, but every day is really funny."
These organizations claim that the play "mocks the Bulgarian exploits at Slivnica, portrays our soldiers as drunkards, and the people as barbaric, illiterate, primitive and dirty."
A play about the Serbian-Bulgarian war
The action of the play "Weapons and Man" is set in a Bulgarian town during the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885. Critics describe it as an anti-war and anti-romantic comedy.
Many of the characters in the play are Bulgarians, and some of them are portrayed in a comical light.
The main character, Raina, has a romantic idea about soldiers and war in general, but that illusion is later shattered.
Shaw himself states that the basic plot of the story was completed long before he decided where the action would take place, an interpretation that some directors take into account when staging the play.
The Serbian-Bulgarian war began due to dissatisfaction and territorial demands of Belgrade after the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. The Serbian army attacks Bulgaria, which does not yet have a well-organized and trained army, and its officers are from Russia, which withdraws them due to opposition to unification.
Despite this, the Bulgarian army defeated the Serbian army in a series of battles, and the two sides signed a peace treaty on March 3, 1886.
The biggest consequence of the war was the international recognition of the unification of Bulgaria.
Sources: RSE
