Nieukończony bułgarski debiut Dziadów Adama Mickiewicza 1937–1938

Abstract

The present article dwells on two instances of Bulgarian theatrical adaptation of Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) in 1937/1938 and two later contemporary performances in 2009 and 2014. They demonstrate the ongoing Bulgarian interest in both the translatability of the text and its scenic life as a work that has a persisting vitality in the context of Bulgarian reception. The first and only comprehensive translation of Dziady was done by Slava Shtiplieva, whose translated version became subject to further modifications and assessments by the philologist Lyubomir Andreychin and the poet Nikolay Liliev when intended for stage dramatization. The present paper focuses on the connections between this translation and the visiting theatrical performance set on the stage of the Bulgarian National Theatre by Leon Schiller and Andrzej Pronaszko with Bulgarian actors in 1937. The performance represents a significant achievement in the Bulgarian reception triggering far-reaching media responses and drawing together a majority of prominent Bulgarian authors and intellectuals. The event sparked heated debates. Slava Shtiplieva’s translation itself, published in 1938 as a separate book, has been subject to numerous critical assessments. The second point of concern is Blaga Dimitrova’s, a writer and translator, translation of Konrad’s famous monologue known as “Wielka Improwizacja” (The Great Improvisation), which is considered more accomplished in terms of poetic achievement, and which provides the basis for two subsequent theatrical interpretations directed by Nikolay Georgiev, the founder of Alma Mater Sofia University Theatre and a disciple of Kazimierz Dejmek and Jerzy Grotowski. In 1968, when Dejmek’s adaptation of Dziady was officially prohibited in Poland, Georgiev was likewise compelled to suspend his lecturing and had to leave for the province. In 2009 and 2014 he set two theatrical performances based on Dziady. A featured interview with the stage director offers further insight into the Bulgarian reception of the play and its form of a continuous reassessment.