In the period June1-11 the Bulgarian city of Varna will host for the 22nd time the largest theater festival in the country. This year, residents and visitors of the city on the Black Sea coast will be able to see a selection of the best performances during the season. There will be a strong foreign participation, as well.

“For several years I have been working with the Varna Summer Festival and I see the great efforts invested in writing Bulgaria’s contemporary theater history through this exclusive forum,” Irinei Konstantinov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Association for Theatre and head of the Sofia Theatre says. “Each year we go through great difficulties but on June 1 we gather in Varna and the festival is open – this is a festive day for theatre, the city and all the participants. Obligation of the association is choosing an expert to select the festival program. Last year prof. Kameliya Nikolova was unanimously elected. She toured Bulgaria and saw over 100 plays in order to create a very elegant and balanced festival program." 

 According to Mr. Irinei Konstantinov, the Bulgarian selection includes quality performances and the festival provides good opportunities for theatres outside the capital city of Sofia. The festival audience will enjoy also performances and artists with awards and nominations like “Icarus” and "Askeer."

Visitors will be able to choose between classic and contemporary titles; there will be drama and puppet performances for adults; contemporary dances and multimedia performances. A street percussion parade will also take place at the initiative of Italian band DaDaDang. The Italian puppet performance "Metamorphosis,” inspired by Kafka’s novel is also part of the program. The play along with three other performances coming from Poland, Slovenia, and the U.S. are part of the "World Theatre in Sofia." Logically these vivid performances are part of the festival program in the coastal city. An audio- visual tour entitled Flyaway is offered to visitors by Australian artist Elizabeth Dunn. The project has been adapted specifically for Varna and invites viewers equipped with headphones and special binoculars to go on an unusual tour of the city, watching migratory birds. Along their way screens will display information about the city birds.

The undisputed highlight of the festival is the visit of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The 450th anniversary since the birth of the genius playwright has made the theater take an unprecedented two-year world tour which spans across 250 countries. Varna will become one of the stops in the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre's tour and the performance will be Hamlet, of course. The tour ends in 2016 when the world will mark 400 years after the death of Shakespeare. With the support of the British Council in Bulgaria, the audience in Varna will watch the performance on June 3. A day before that the audience in Varna will be able to watch on screen the performance of King Lear by the National Theatre in London, directed by Sam Mendes.

English: Alexander Markov