LAME-LEG OR LUPINE HOLY MOTHER
Characters – 3 male, 3 female
First production – National Theatre Ivan Vazov, Sofia, 1995
Directed by Ivan Dobchev
The plot of the play is based on the widely spread among the peoples of the Balkans myth of wolves. Real events are only the minutes that take place between an automobile accident and the discovery of the corpse of the dead person in the snow. He is a theatrical director experiencing a major existential crisis. Before death occurs in his tormented consciousness (and on the stage) intensive action takes place consisting of hallucinations and figments of memory. In this lopsided world all is possible. Each actor appears in numerous roles among which a suicide, a girl from the student year of the man in the accident, a bandit from the year 1925, another one from 1995, a wolf-man, a catholic missionary of the 17th century, a badly wounded woman – resistance fighter from WWII, a victim and his executor from a gulag, two noveau rich people, two sexual murderers from our times, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
- The play is translated into French.
Yosif Shamly and Rumyana Bocheva
The masterfully executed by Konstantin Iliev method of expressionistic construction of the plot in which the «resurrected» by death really free person roams through a boundless universe inhabited by lonely wanderers – extensions of his own consciousness, gives the play a form which, despite the characteristic for this author specifically national content, makes it «recognizable» on a European scale.
Kamelia Nikolova «An Attempt At A Psychoanalytical Approach Today Today's Bulgarian Drama», «Literary Forum» newspaper, 08.04.1997
Rumyana Bocheva and Vladimir Penev
The theatrical action rushes forward to create an impressive irrational world where everything is and isn't at the same time. The existential problems are approached from an ethical point of view, but without a shred of didactics or arrogance. The rapid shifts in the chronology, the characters and points of view are a provocation to the viewer. If he or she went to get some rest at the National, he or she will soon be shuffling towards the exits. All the worst for them, because Lame-leg is entertainment, pleasure, a feast that requires the intellectual effort and participation of the viewer.
Rumyana Nikiforova, "Lame-Leg Or Lupine Holy Mother" (a review of the production at the National Theatre, directed by Ivan Dobchev), "Literature Newspaper", 27.03.- 02.04. 1996
