With this performance, we want to show how important it is to be together, to be a people and not just a population, says director Bina Haralampieva
The Varna Drama Theater “Stoyan Bachvarov” is visiting Veliko Tarnovo on November 25 at 7 p.m. with the production “Under the Yoke”. The director of the performance is Bina Haramlampieva, the playwright is Yuriy Dachev.
For nearly a century, from 1927 to 2023, the novel “Under the Yoke” was permanently present in the history of the Varna Theater with productions by directors Ivan Yanev, Stoyan Bachvarov, Nikolay Fall, Stancho Stanchev and Bina Haralampieva. In the 1927/28 season, just a few years after the Varna Theater was founded (1921), the director and director Ivan Yanev, one of the founders of the Union of Artists in Bulgaria, staged for the first time “Under the Yoke” – a play in 7 dramatic scenes from Ivan Vazov”.
The historical reference to the Chronicle of the 100-year anniversary of the Varna Drama Theater (1921-2021), compiled by Nikola Vandov, also indicates that the director himself played the role of Chorbaji Marko, and his wife, also a well-known actress of the time, Alexandra Yaneva, reincarnated in the image of Rada Gospozhina.
After the premiere on March 14, 1928, “Under the Yoke” reached 25 performances. This year, the Stoyan Bachvarov Drama Theater team is once again reaching for the beloved Bulgarian novel “Under the Yoke”. Prominent theater artists were invited for the production: Bina Haralampieva – director, Yuriy Dachev – dramaturgical version, Svila Velichkova – set designer and costume designer and Asen Avramov – composer. This is the “Tobacco” team, which created in Varna the first Bulgarian theatrical adaptation based on Dimitar Dimov’s literary original, which became the most sought-after and beloved performance in the recent history of the Varna Theater.
Expectations are that now the same will happen with “Under the Yoke”.
The cast includes the guests Bogdan Bukhalov – Boycho Ognyanov and Ivan Yurukov – Dr. Sokolov, Stoyan Radev is Kiriak Stefchov, Hristina Jurova – Rada Mihalkova, Veselina Mikhalkova – Kaka Ginka, Nikolay Bozhkov – Borimechka, Konstantin Sokolov – Kolcho Slepetsa, Flamen Dimitrov – Chorbadji Marko, Svilen Stoyanov – Chorbadji Yurdan, Valentin Mitev – Chorbadji Micho Beyzadeto and others.
“Under the Yoke’ (1894) sounds remarkably contemporary, because so many years later we have hardly changed and continue to have the same faults and virtues. We are divided into two – on one side are those devoted to the national cause, and on the other – the rest, who are very careful that the interests of the nation do not violate their own interests. In our attempt to be truly free, 33 years ago we repeated the same mistakes that our people went through in the approaches to the April Uprising.
This is what we are trying to tell with our performance – how little we have changed and how important it is to be together, to be a people and not just a population, says director Bina Haralampieva. It is of particular importance to me that when you read the novel, you like to feel Bulgarian.
In our dramaturgical version, we emphasized precisely the themes and moments that bring out this meaning. We did it with the awareness that today we ask ourselves the same questions and are looking for ourselves again, we are looking for a way to strengthen the Bulgarian in us, to raise our self-esteem. We desperately need this. We have no self-confidence as a nation. Unfortunately, we have learned to talk nonsense about why we should be ashamed to be Bulgarians.
To this desperate search for reasons to feel sorry for ourselves, I would like to oppose the reasons to love each other. Now more and more we need reasons to be proud of being Bulgarian”, Bina Haralampieva presents her directorial concept for “Under the Yoke” 2023.
https://www.eventim.bg/bg/bileti/pod-igoto-veliko-trnovo-muzikalno-dramatichen-teatr-konstantin-kisimov-626456/event.html
