site.btaIvan Vazov National Theatre's New Season Features Seven Premieres

Seven new productions will have their premieres on the stage of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre from September to December, the theatre said.

The theatre’s new season will feature premieres of Medea directed by Declan Donnellan, A Doll's House, Part 2 by Yasen Peyankov, and Darkness on the Edge of Town by Kathrin Mädler, among others.

After starring in the guest production In the Solitude of Cotton Fields in the National Theatre last year, actor John Malkovich will stage Bernard Shaw's anti-war play Arms and the Man.

"Intense rehearsals for the upcoming October, November, and December premieres are underway. New productions are being prepared by big names on the world stage, such as John Malkovich, Declan Donnellan, Kathrin Mädler, and Yasen Peyankov. The audience can expect very different, serious, and interesting interpretations of classical and contemporary theatrical texts, which will surely give a strong kick-off to the new season," the National Theatre’s dramaturg Mira Todorova said.

The new season will open on September 10 with An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. The production directed by Thierry Harcourt stars Julian Vergov, Vladimir Karamazov, and Maria Kavardzhikova.

Two premieres will be presented in September: Nick Payne’s Constellations, directed by Elitsa Yovcheva, and Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater, directed by Vasilena Radeva. The former will take place on September 12, the latter on September 13.

Euripides' Medea will have its debut in October. A new verbatim translation of the ancient Greek tragedy was commissioned specially for the Bulgarian production. The play’s set design is done by Nick Ormerod.

Arms and the Man will premiere on the National Theatre stage in November. Rehearsals will begin in October. The cast includes actors from the National Theatre troupe who were selected through a special audition by John Malkovich and the production's set designer, Belgian artist Pierre-François Limbosch.

On September 7, the National Theatre will present Michel Houellebecq’s play The Elementary Particles, directed by Chris Sharkov, at the Balkan Theatre Festival in Serbia.  William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, directed by Robert Wilson, which guested at the International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova at the end of last season, will be presented at the Tbilisi International Theatre Festival in Georgia on September 17 and 18.