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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?

In Greece they are giving a lot more funds then in Bulgaria. Nowadays serious art with no money cannot be done and it becomes more and more expensive. In Bulgaria there is the opinion of the politicians that there shouldn’t be paid so much attention to the culture because it is boring and that is why we got to where we are. It is clear that when you don’t have the governmental policy for culture sooner or later you won’t have a government as well. The damages in the country are already visible, they will be hard to correct and more funds are needed than if everything would have been going as it should. The sponsors in Bulgaria are like a light motif. Only that nobody asks the question what sponsors are we talking about, meaning where do the money come from. How would you go to ask for sponsorship for the opera “Karment” when the sponsor will ask who is this folk star? And if we make a test, if there is one out of every one hundred who knows the opera than this is great. These people came from nowhere. These are not the sponsors of the La Skala in Milan, where ten generations are giving the heritage of their grandparents who were the first ones to sponsor and they know all of the operas which are being played there by heart.

However in Bulgaria there are no “mellow money” for many centuries the people live a more humble life…

In Bulgaria there is the government – the government always has money if it wants to. At the free market everybody does what he wants to – if he pleases he listens to Azis, if he pleases to Gloria. And the task of the government is by using the instruments it has - the National Radio, the National television to offer high quality things. They say “people do not watch”. Well nowhere in the world they do. However there are these 5% to 8% which is not little. In our country the national channel is a competition to the private. It has to offer something of high value, not to be competition to the private channels. Then already there is no way out. Here the public theaters are two – 100% and they have no right of receiving sponsorship. And this is very right as there is always the thought that behind the sponsorship there is something more. For example I have an affair with an actress and I say she will play the star part, however she might not really be a good actress and probably she is not… And in order not to have conflict of interests here in Greece when you say public it means that the government finances it. At a symphony concert here you could see present about 20 – 30 members of the Parliament. It is not because they all like it, but because they know they will be seen here. The camera is filming them… There is nothing like this in our country.

Where is the problem in Bulgaria as you could define it?

We have the obligation our children to live their childhood normally, not to have a seven years old child acting like Azis. It is not for his age, it is bad. The child has to listen to the music of his age. When the child is three years old it has to listen to songs for children, at the age of five – others, and the time will come when it will find out what exactly he likes to listen to. But when from everywhere you could here this… It is a matter of government policy and it would be critical if nothing is done. It is not possible that we want to be in Europe, but to have a country full of people who do not think. In Europe the people go on strikes, and our politicians are happy we do not have such problems. It is not something to be happy about. When you have no opposition it is a problem. The nation downgrades. You could even see the joy in the eyes of the politicians because people are easier to be managed like this that it would be if they were smart and thinking. I read the opinion of a scientist that soon we won’t have a public radio and television and if this really happens then this would be our end. Here they have three public televisions and if you look at the program you will see how many documentaries they broadcast, concerts…

And if you lose this instrument, you lose even that little seed that you have left to plant. Then will only remain the garishness. There are ways to preserve the culture- how did Pavarotti do it, who was singing opera in crowded stadiums. However he wasn’t singing the whole works of art, but only separate arias. Despite of the fact that if I go to see “La Boheme” by Puccini I want to hear the entire opera, not some bits and peaces. In the foreign press a lot was written against this way of popularizing. Now I see this is better. However first a Pavarotti has to be born, and how will a Pavarotti be born since when there is somebody who has a good voice a company would get to him and turn him into a chalga singer. How will he be born?! 

You sound pessimistic…

The art is a business and the one day hits bring more money. The producers companies want somebody with an opinion who should be somebody and all the somebodys are lost. The one day hits do not need a constant support, you use her for a year or two or three and then comes the new one. However I believe there are seeds – true poets, writhers and if there aren’t any – I have to leave for an island, go fishing and smoke a pipe.

How does the creative process flows with you?

I write music this is my profession and I do it for a living. I live decently I still do not make too great compromises with my self, meaning that I haven’t yet gone commercial. When I don’t have a muse I have my professional instinct. And I adapt it and make it work because the play has a term until which it should be ready to go on stage. And I cannot afford to delay it. I believe that if they are still calling me then I still do the job. The time is the criteria, it does not forgive and it will tell. The time has its laws.

What makes you go back to Bulgaria?

My family. It is something very strong. I had to leave at that time. I had three opportunities and I chose Greece because it is close. This was the first reason besides the sea. The sea was what gave the final touch in the decision.

And how did your life change since you came to live in Greece?

Here I have people who think like me and I also have them in Bulgaria. I have my environment of unanimity. A didn’t change anything because everybody wonders ho come “they are different”…It is not true because when you find your environment you don’t change. And this is the most valuable thing. Because the emigrant is always in a difficult situation and exaggerates this coldness, inside of him he has psychological problems because he cannot find his environment. I had some friends even before I came, who were my friends in the real meaning of the word. We were sharing everything and we had the same ideas. That is why I have no problems. I might have a financial problem, but not a creative one. I do what I can with the people I want to do it with.

Because we spoke a lot about the television and the commercialization, have you ever worked in the television?

In Bulgaria not only that I worked in the television, but during the socialist times I was in the list of the names of people who were taking the highest salaries in the television. I was in the top ten. And at that time everything was regulated, there was no free market, but there was a table. I was working mainly in children shows. I was working for Kliment Dachev – bate Klimo who was drawing and singing, he was making about 100 - 200 movies a year. I was very deep into the television. At that time the television was very much expurgated. Things were passing a hundred editors. However you shouldn’t think that nothing was created at that time. The memory of the classics has to always be remembered through their works.

And just for the end of this interesting conversation when looking ahead tell me what will be your next project.

I work all the time, however I wouldn’t like to go into details. We want with the theater of satire to put on stage the play “The clouds” by Aristophan and to bring it here to be performed in Irodio during the Athens festival. If this happens it will be done with Bulgarian actors, a Greek director, Greek choreographer, me, a Bulgarian artist – a mixed team. This will be very nice. It will show that we can live together at this placed called Balkans. Which has no boundaries already, however these boundaries shouldn’t only drop for the business, but the art should also overcome them.