The Ivan Vazov National Theater in Sofia has marked the birthday of writer Stefan Tsanev by showing two of his acclaimed plays - the tragedies “The trial against the Bogomils” and “The spirit of the poet”. This was not a birthday proper: Stefan Tsanev turned 80 in August last year - at a time when theaters have their summer recess. This was more of a theater celebration. Stefan Tsanev is a prolific playwright among other things and has written 31 plays so far. He has also written a few verse volumes and other works.

Stefan Tsanev's writing style is distinct and markedly emotional. In the meanwhile however his works offer a richness of implied meaning, something characteristic of a few writers who have worked under communism, a time of strict censorship. By the way, his masterful use of implied meaning has not always worked, and some of Tsanev's texts were banned in the past. The writer puts a few essential but often troublesome questions - about the meaning of life, truth and deception and Bulgaria's national fate.

For his plays he has picked up plots from history but their pathos is firmly landed in the present day. This is the case with the play released in 1987 and entitled “The last supper of deacon Levski”. It is about the great Bulgarian fighter against the Ottoman rule, for freedom and democracy. Vasil Levski died on the gallows mysteriously betrayed (it is not certain who Judas exactly was but he was Bulgarian). „Why, while still alive, was he abandoned, not to say betrayed, by almost everybody”, the writer wants to know. After the democratic changes in Bulgaria in 1990s, Stefan Tsanev continued this thematic line with the play “The spirit of the poet” (2011). The spirit is the national hero and poet of genius Hristo Botev who died for Bulgaria's freedom. In the play he often troubles the conscience of some of his brethren from the struggles including PM Stefan Stambolov, who are now prosperous politicians tempted by the niceties of power.

Stefan Tsanev's own darling is “The trial against the Bogomils”. It is about the Bulgarian heretics (Bogomils) in the Middle Ages. They ran a powerful dualist sect and were persecuted by the church. Tsanev once said about this play: “I wrote this tragedy in the autumn of 1968 - after the Soviet and the Bulgarian tanks ran Czechoslovakia over.”

Some of today's world events can also provide a viable background for a playwright provided he is able to detect the right form, the writer told Radio Bulgaria:  

„Well, I mean current events like the terrorist attacks, being part of a struggle between religions underway and getting fiercer by the day. This is a productive subject for drama. This is in fact a battle of the gods.”

Is Stefan Tsanev optimistic about the future of the Bulgarian nation? The writer says that it could be that the nation has been taken aback by a range of incredible changes that took place within a short period of time.

“This can explain, I think, the apathy in which the nation is trapped, because our times are times of the worst of all - hypocrisy across all spheres of life. This kills the inner impulse of man to protest - he does not know what he should protest. However I believe that our nation has been slowly exiting this apathy and will in the future decide about its fate on its own - who is going to rule the nation and what is the best to do.”

Do we still need dreams and illusions today? Says Stefan Tsanev: 

„Zero illusions means no engine to push one forward. Let there be more 'fools' as they are often called, who love to imagine things they want to achieve. Whether you name this a dream or illusion is unimportant. What matters is that this is the bait that leads one forward, on and on.”

And here is one of the writer's favorite aphorisms: „A poet's job is to enlarge every question he is faced with into a global question - otherwise it makes no sense for him to write about it.”

Other major plays written by Stefan Tsanev include “The last night of Socrates”, “The other demise of Joan of Arc”, “A feast in time of democracy”, and from among his verse volumes he values most “Perigees or the nearest points to the center of the Earth” and “Requiem”.

English Daniela Konstantinova