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Marina Nikolova

First I would like to talk to you about the new performance which premiere this week was in Sofia – “The backgammon”. It is by a Greek author, how was it accepted in Sofia…

The premier was on Tuesday and on Monday we held a press conference. The were reporters from “Trud” and “24 chasa”. I buy all the newspapers on the next day and there is not a single line. I have already reasonable doubts that on purpose no attention is paid to the cultural relationships, which is the most direct cooperation there could ever be between Bulgaria and Greece and this has been going on for years. And nothing changes even after the acceptance of Bulgaria in the European Union.

Because you are in these fields for many years, what are the relations between the two stages – the Greek and the Bulgarian, between the two guilds – how do they accept each other’s works of art…

For decades a Greek play has not been performed in Bulgaria. The last Greek play was about 20 -30 years ago and its author was Yakovos Kambenelis. I could tell you shortly the story of the relations between Bulgaria and Greece. In the 70s a local director meets Stanislav Stratiev and directs two of his plays one of which was “Velveteen jacket”. Later another director in Thessaloniki put on stage his play “Bus”. And until I came Stratiev was the only Bulgarian author whose plays were performed in Greece. Absolutely nothing else was done in this area even though we are neighbors. I don’t know why in Bulgaria on the other hand there is the opinion that everything made in Geece is retrogressive, old fashioned, not interesting, which is really not true. And it is so for one simple reason – only in Athens there are over 150 theaters – well, it is not possible that all plays are bad. Here are made a lot of modern things, very interesting researches… there are a lot of young people, who graduated in London, in New York. I only wish to say that such cooperation will be useful for both sides. With a lot of efforts a put on stage about 6 or 7 plays here. Almost all plays which are performed here I also put on stage in Cyprus. I directed plays under the texts of Valeri Petrov, Christo Boychev, Stefan Tsanev – and to its premier came even the president of Greece as opposed to other Bulgarians who had to be there. Last year I made a translation of the play of Teodora Dimova “Neda and the dogs”, which was performed in Thessaloniki. However here nobody from the Bulgarians is interested to come and to see it. And the Greeks asked me several times “Well you are now offering us so many Bulgarian plays, wouldn’t you do something for the Greek authors as well?” My attempts were met everywhere with laughter. I still have my connections in Sofia and when I came back I offered them two wonderful plays – one of them was by Yannis Kradzopoulos and they turned me down without even reading it. I am like the lonely Mohican on the battlefield. Everbody says “this one became Greek and is offering us the stupid Greek theater”. This is generally speaking the common opinion, however they do not know this theater, they do not come to see it.

This is a rather brave decision to put on stage this play – where did you find this enthusiasm and where did you find the money to do it?

Under the occasion of a visit of the Athens mayor Kaklamanis a person called Mitko Gerdjikov called me who is the deputy mayor of Sofia and a former commercial representative of Bulgaria in Greece. I know him from Athens. He told me: “Let us do something, however we do not have a lot of money”. I found this play by an author who passed away three years ago – Dimitris Kehaidis is his name and he is very famous… This play I suggested is for two people only and is very lowly in terms of budget. Its name is “The backgammon” – a great Balkan comedy about two crooks and unfortunate people. Ostap Benderovitsi who while they are playing backgammon are trying to find a way to become rich. However they are good crooks and at the end you are sympathetic with them as they do not kill, nor do they steal or burn. They simply discuss and in their discussions there is a lot of humor. And despite the obvious boycott – because it is not possible that a serious newspaper would have two pages on Azis and would not write ten lines that tomorrow there will be a premier… However the “Vuzrajdane” theater – the municipal theatre was crowded, how did they know… however for the good things there is always audience. I am sure of that. A hundred people will come who will take with them another two hundred and so on. The main thing is that two actors – Valentin Tanev and Valentin Balabanov played wonderfully. I have seen that play here as well, howver our actors perform it much better and they defend the author from their heart. The hall is dying with laughter, the audience enjoys it they are having good time. We are talking about a real laughter, not about some rude jokes which sooner or later will become boring for all. The language is pure, the situation is funny, the performance is great so this will have a long life.

In which of the two countries is easier to finance projects in the field of art?