THEATRE ART – Déjà vui

I shall allow myself to make my assessment of John Malkovich’s production of Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” in two parts. The first is connected with Bernard Shaw’s play itself, the second — with its interpretation on the stage of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

Bernard Shaw himself, in one of his interviews, makes a clumsy attempt to justify a number of postulates in his work, resorting to complicated​​ justification​​ in order to justify them.

The question why, in order to sharpen the satirical anti-war sting of your play, you resorted to a rather haughty, insulting assessment of an ancient European people, in a mentality typical of the English aristocracy, is more of an answer than a question.

Incidentally, if one reads some of Queen Victoria’s letters to the British Prime Minister Lord Beaconsfield in connection with the impending Bulgarians​​ gaining an independence​​ as a result of the war of 1877–1878, one will note, with bitterness, the undisguised contempt and even hatred for our cause.

But, as a French classic once said: “Like master, like servant.”

In Malkovich’s production itself, the so-called satirical element is taken to such an absurdity that it even crosses the boundaries of the grotesque and turns into a tasteless vaudeville.

The actors do not speak. They simply shout, shout over one another, incapable of grasping the “profound” directorial message, which comes​​ down to this: let us vulgarize a people, caricature the officersii, covered with glory — in order to denounce “war as a dream of patriots, an absolute lie … like love”iii. (Bernard Shaw)

And all this about a war that brought not epaulettes and medals, but resurrected the name Bulgaria after almost five centuries of bondage. And glory!

Known and unknown “luminaries” hasten to explain to us that Bernard Shaw’s play is quite simply a work of artistic fiction, a philosophical projection by the author onto concrete historical material. In this case — the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885.

But allow me, gentlemen — in our most recent history there are very few events that have attained the status of myth. Because every Bulgarian, young and old, rises to defend the Fatherland from the invader. Led by his valiant young officers. And all of them, through their self-sacrifice and heroism, become a myth for all following generations.

On the occasion of their artistic interpretation, the great symbolist poet Nikolay Lilieviv​​ wrote that “A myth is a myth because it is not subject to recreation” in real images and events. “That is why,” Liliev continues, “it would be extremely unwise and even harmful to recreate, by means of theatre and cinema, personalities such as Levski, Botev, Rakovski …”

For, I am addressing the director of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre, for whom I have profound disrespect: the fabric of every myth is very delicate, but also very tough. And every encroachment upon it, especially with coarse hands, turns into sacrilege. Into shamelessness.

The Bulgarian students in Vienna, who in 1926 booed Bernard Shaw’s play, understood this perfectly. As did the Sofia audience at its premiere in Sofia on 7 October 2024.

Déjà vu!

i​​ Déjà vu — already seen.

ii​​ NOTES by ArtDialog:

On 2 November 1885, Serbian King Milan declared war on Bulgaria because of the Unification, carried out in violation of the Treaty of Berlin, between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, which possessed administrative autonomy and was left under the authority of the Sultan, as were the lands of Macedonia.

Although only months after the Treaty of Berlin the Razlog-Kresna Uprising broke out, and everyone should have been aware that the Bulgarians would not long tolerate the division imposed upon them.

All the states neighboring Bulgaria were also against the Unification, because it substantially changed the map of the Balkan Peninsula, where Bulgaria became one of the largest states.

Serbia in particular, because Bulgaria became at least twice as large as it. And Serbia had claims to hegemony over the Slavic population of the peninsula and wanted the annexation of new territories equal to those received by Bulgaria as a result of the Unification. Romania wanted part of Southern Dobrudja, Greece wanted part of Northern Macedonia and threatened that if it did not receive it, it would invade Turkey.

The Bulgarian rulers made every effort to avoid a military clash, although as early as 17 September Serbian units had crossed our border near Tran and, although they were repelled by the Bulgarian army, the provocations continued. At the end of October the Serbian troops completed their concentration along the border and on 2 November 1885 King Milan, who faced serious opposition at home and was confident of easy success, declared war on Bulgaria.

On the same day Prince Alexander I Battenberg issued a manifesto to the Bulgarian people with the appeal: “Every Bulgarian capable of bearing arms should come under the banners to fight for his Fatherland and freedom, for the defense of our land against the incursion of the attackers.”

A total of 108,000 men were mobilized in Bulgaria, among them 14,000 militiamen from the Eastern Rumelian militia and several thousand volunteers, but almost without a command staff.

Russia, which was also against the Unification, withdrew its officers from the Principality and from the Eastern Rumelian militia as a demonstration of its rejection of the new political situation. Bulgaria was left with only three majors and an insignificant number of captains, all of them without any experience and around 30 years old.

Nevertheless, contrary to expectations, the Bulgarian officers and soldiers demonstrated their valor in the battles at Slivnitsa, Dragoman, Pirot and Vidin and won the war.

iii​​ From Mark Twain’s speech delivered at the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.

iv​​ Nikolay Liliev — poet, dramatist​​ and translator​​ (1885–1960), born in Stara Zagora to a family of hereditary teachers and priests, but orphaned at an early age. Although he had been writing poetry since school, he graduated from the Commercial High School in Svishtov and worked at the Agricultural Bank in Stara Zagora. In 1909, after winning a competition, he went to Paris as a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Trade, where he completed his higher commercial education. He took part in the Balkan War and in the First World War (as a private and a correspondent).

From 1913 to 1915 he was a teacher at the Commercial High School in Svishtov, where Ivan Radoslavov and Vladimir Dimitrov, the Master, were already working (from left to right — Liliev, Radoslavov and the Master, who, while living in the village of Shishkovtsi, although he was always gladly welcomed at the Academy when in Sofia, would usually paint in Liliev’s office

at the National Theatre, “so that they could have a good long talk”).

In 1921, together with Prof. Nikola Mihov, he worked in libraries in Munich and Vienna on compiling a bibliography of Bulgaria’s economic life through the centuries. But since various literary magazines had published his poems even in his school years, when in 1920 Vladimir Vasilev began publishing Zlatorog, Liliev became his co-editor, which made a decisive contribution to the development of many Bulgarian poets and writers. The success of Nikolay Liliev’s first poetry collection, Birds in the Night (1918), was so great that it was reprinted the same year. He published Moon Spots (1922), Poems (1931) and the cycle By the Sea (1934), printed in Zlatorog. After his death, independent editions of his poems were more numerous than during his lifetime, including Collected Works in 3 volumes (1964).

But Nikolay Liliev made an even more important contribution, since for 30 years he was the dramatist​​ of the National Theatre (1924–1928 and 1934–1960), where he worked until his death in 1960 (at the age of 75). Continuing the traditions laid down by Pencho Slaveykov and Peyo Yavorov at the National Theatre, Liliev made an exceptional contribution to the development of theatrical art in Bulgaria. He translated an enormous number of plays for the needs of the theatrical repertoire from the European and Russian classics — William Shakespeare, Pierre Corneille, Henrik Ibsen, Maurice Maeterlinck, Victor Hugo, Alexey Tolstoy and others.

By attracting the best Bulgarian writers to write for the theatre and the best translators, Nikolay Liliev played a decisive role in the flourishing of Bulgarian theatrical art.

After the convincing Bulgarian victory at Pirot, the Serbian army was facing complete defeat (within 25 days). On 28 November, under pressure from Austria, an armistice was reached; the Peace Treaty was concluded on 3 March 1886.