site.btaEx Machina International Festival for Professional, Youth Ancient Theatres to Be Held in Plovdiv April 3-5

The first edition of the Ex Machina International Festival for Professional and Youth Ancient Theatres will be held from April 3 to 5 in Plovdiv, said the organizers from the Ognyan Radev Ancient Theatre on Friday. The festival's mission is to encourage youth ancient theatres, which is why the festival selection includes a number of performances by young people from Bulgaria, Greece and Italy.

Highlights of the programme on the stage of the Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv are the one-man show Metamorphoses by Leonid Yovchev, directed by Ani Vaseva, the guest performance from Athens Anamnesis, as well as Orpheus and Eurydice.

Ex Machina will end on April 5 at the Bishop’s Basilica of Philippopolis, where a series of short presentations and a round table on the links between antiquity and modernity will be held. The round table will feature amongst others Samuel Finzi, Javor Gardev, Georgi Tenev, and Ani Vaseva. They will examine the question of the role of machines from antiquity to the present day and whether everything that comes from a machine is a fraud.

One of the main and authentic purposes of the Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv, namely to be a platform for the performance of ancient theatrical performances, has not been implemented for centuries, after part of the theatre was destroyed in the 4th century, the organizers pointed out. Before that, it used to gather about 6,000 spectators and host gladiatorial and hunting games as well.