With this pastoral picture in words begins the first act of the classic play Uncle ‎Vanya by Anton ‎Pavlovich Chekhov. A work which has become a textbook ‎for the European theater, which causes creative trepidation to ‎this day in the ‎masters of the stage. Time, in and around us, is a central character in Chekhov's ‎stories that ‎have outlived their time and place. A theatre of mood that offers an ‎underwater life to the text, ‎dependent on each viewer. Another proof of these ‎words is offered by Bulgarian theatre director and lecturer at ‎‎La Trobe University in ‎Melbourne, Bagryana Popov, who has lived in Australia for more than two ‎‎decades. ‎

Fascinated by multidisciplinary forms, she combines theatrical and dance ‎language with space ‎and time. With this formula nine years ago, Bagryana ‎‎began to develop her different take on Uncle ‎Vanya. ‎

The classic Russian play literally comes to life, performed against the backdrop ‎of the ‎Australian nature in private homes or a museum, in the snippets of the ‎day described by its author. ‎

On ‎September 1 and 2, the Bulgarian public will be able to experience ‎this fusion of art with today's reality, ‎in a house in the Svishtov village of ‎Krivina. A place that once again carries us along the thin line of time. ‎‎

‎"In Krivina, because my roots are from there. This is my father's birthplace and ‎as a child I used to spend my ‎summers there with my parents. For me, that was ‎the life in the village, and that's where the ‎inspiration for my theatrical life ‎started. Because this place and the children’s games until late in the evenings ‎and the presence ‎of nature and the way in which people lived in the villages in ‎the 1960s and 1970s was full ‎of beauty, imagination and play. And when I ‎started to develop and stage this project nine years ago, I ‎realized that it all ‎started from my childhood and from Krivin", says Bagryana Popov in an interview for BNR's Horizon channel.‎

‎Preparation for the performance consists of laboratory work with Bulgarian ‎actors and lasted only three weeks, ‎Popava explained to BNR. The rehearsals ‎and the performance itself take place in an old Bulgarian ‎house in the village. ‎The entire space of the property becomes the "host" of scenes of country life in ‎four ‎acts, as Chekhov himself called his play. The audience will experience the ‎place and be present ‎alongside the actors. ‎

There are two principles on which the Bulgarian director works - ‎site-specific ‎and ‎durational. In the play, each act is at a specific moment that the story ‎follows. "For example, the first ‎act is an afternoon outdoors, they are drinking ‎tea. Second act - late at night. The third act takes place ‎during the day and the ‎fourth – on the evening of the second day. We play during the hours of the ‎specific ‎act and so the performance is played over two days," explains ‎Bagryana Popov. Site-specific is the term used to describe the ‎very close ‎connection with the place, with the nature that surrounds you, she continues. ‎

‎"The idea of this way of working is to open the play to the place where it is set, ‎so that it becomes a part of it and the text comes to life in this particular place. ‎We do this by adapting specific moments in the text. In this sense, we are not ‎simply translating the words from Russian to English or from Russian to ‎Bulgarian, we are translating the year 1896, in this case, to the "language" of ‎the year 2023. Uncle Vanya talks about agriculture, what it's like to live in ‎the countryside, what it means for a retired professor of cultural studies to try to ‎live outside the city. What does it mean for a person to earn his living from ‎only one property in a village. The theme of protecting forests, the nature ‎around us. This play was written in a time - that of Chekhov, and now we are ‎translating this time and trying to touch on all the questions that passionately ‎concern the actors - to bring them to our time, to fully feel their meaning here ‎and now.” ‎

Art in its purest form, some would say. Bagryana defines it as a festival project ‎in development. And it is with undisguised pride that she notes the warm ‎reception by the audience of the seven performances played in 2019 of her ‎Uncle Vanya at the Adelaide Arts Festival. A total of six places in Australia became the setting of the play. "And all the property owners where ‎we played immediately agreed to cooperate with us," admits the Bulgarian ‎director who, through her unconventional approach, turns art not just into ‎entertainment for a certain time, but into a real experience and empathy.‎

And after returning to her second homeland, Australia, Bagryana Popov will ‎once again devote herself ‎to Chekhov with rehearsals of the play Cherry ‎Orchard at the Academy in Melbourne. ‎

*Bagryana Popov is an actress, director and teacher of theater art in Melbourne. ‎She was born in ‎Bulgaria, but as a child she moved with her family to ‎Australia. She earned a degree in Acting at the ‎Victorian College of the Arts, ‎now part of the University of Melbourne. Her author's performance ‎‎"Progress ‎and Melancholy", a physical-dance theater based on Chekhov's Cherry ‎Orchard, won three ‎Green Room Awards on the Melbourne theater scene, ‎including for best direction.‎