„Процесът против богомилите" на Стефан Цанев - пародия на театъра на властта
“Bogomils on Trial” by Stefan Tsanev – a Parody of the Theatre of Authority

Author(s): Tsvetana Georgieva
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Bulgarian Literature
Published by: ЮГОЗАПАДЕН УНИВЕРСИТЕТ »НЕОФИТ РИЛСКИ«
Keywords: Stefan Tsanev; the political reality; a parody of the theater of power.
Summary/Abstract: The play “The trial against the Bogomils” by Stefan Tsanev went out in a typewritten form in 1969 and has not been on Bulgarian stage at the time. The reason is that the party circles at that time perceive the text as an allegory of the political reality of the 60’s in Bulgaria and in the prototypes of the characters they see the authority – `The first` (Todor Zhivkov) and the `Princess` (Lyudmila Zhivkova). In reality, the play turns out not as a ‘hystorical tragedy’, as its author represents it, but rather as a parody of the theater of power. The playwright achieves this effect by means of pictures, revealing the theatricality of the different forms of social life (‘the theatre’ of the court, of history, of the royal institution). The ideology of the Bogomil religious (and the alongside passed parallel with the communism) is strongly and sarcastically diminished by the elements of commedia dell ’arte, burlesque and commedia fool, used in the play.

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