The Physics of Sorrow

THE PHYSICS OF SORROW based on the novel by Georgi Gospodinov DIRECTOR: Jernej Lorenci DRAMATURGY: Dino Pešut and Jernej Lorenci SCENIC DESIGNER: Branko Hojnik COSTUME DESIGNER: Belinda Radulović COMPOSER AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Žiga Hren LIGHTING DESIGNER: Mariana Hlebkova STARRING: Albena Stareva, Alexander Tonev, Aneta Ivanova, Valentin Ganev, Vasilena Vincenzo, Darina Radeva, Dimitar Nikolov, Veselin Mezekliev, Konstantin Elenkov, Paraskeva Djukelova, Radena Valkanova, Stelian Radev, Theodora Dukhovnikova, Hristo Petkov For the second time, one of the most interesting names in European theatre, Slovenian director Jernej Lorenci, will stage a production with the troupe of the National Theatre. Following the production "Orpheus," Lorenci returns to Sofia to work on Georgi Gospodinov's novel "The Physics of Sorrow" (2012). The novel has been translated into more than 20 languages, won the prestigious international Jan Michalski Award in 2016, and was a finalist for the American PEN Translation Prize, Premio Strega Europeo, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Award, the Gregor von Rezzori Award, and others. According to The New Yorker magazine, "Georgi's true aim in 'The Physics of Sorrow' is to find a way to live with sorrow, to allow it to become a source of empathy and beneficial oscillation...". The short animated film "The Physics of Sorrow," based on the eponymous novel (dir. Theodore Ushev), has won numerous international accolades and was among the titles on the shortlist for the 2020 Academy Awards. In the novel, time does not follow a chronological order but is fragmentary, cyclical, and experienced from within. "The Physics of Sorrow" tells the story of how humans experience time, history, and loss through memory, empathy, and stories. According to Saint Augustine's understanding: time exists primarily in human consciousness, not as an objective flow. Past, present, and future exist simultaneously; memory changes and bends time, while the present is fragile and fleeting. The book is structured as an archive, a suitcase, or a labyrinth of memories. Personal memories intertwine with family history and collective memory. Remembering becomes an ethical act – an attempt to preserve what would otherwise disappear. Memory is not an accurate document of facts but something unstable, fragmentary, and deeply emotional. Sorrow is not weakness but a form of knowledge, a quiet opposition to modernity obsessed with the idea of happiness at any cost. The novel is an elegy for everything that gradually disappears. Writing becomes an attempt to save what is about to be lost forever. Jernej Lorenci's play creates a stage version that transforms the literary labyrinth into a living theatrical world of memories, stories, images, voices, and bodies. At the center of the play is the human being, trapped in their own labyrinth of past and future, of fears and hopes, of loneliness and longing for closeness. The myth of the Minotaur intertwines with personal and collective memory, while individual human fates form a common narrative about generations, lost time, and our ability to feel another's pain as our own. With his deeply emotional and ritualistic theatrical language, Jernej Lorenci creates a play in which the ensemble becomes a single organism, and the stage – a space for shared experience. Through music, personal stories, memories, and collective presence, the actors seek what connects us beyond differences: the human and the common present. A play about empathy as a form of resistance. About the human need to preserve the traces of the past and to dream of the future together. Because, as Georgi Gospodinov reminds us, after the end of the world, perhaps the most important thing is to open our arms and embrace the other. DRAMATURG OF THE PRODUCTION: Mira Todorova ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Nikolay Yordanov ASSISTANT DIRECTORS: Olga Nedelkova, Marinela Sivcheva POSTER DESIGNER: Nikolay Dimitrov NAD PROGRAMME DESIGNER: Yanina Petrova SUBTITLE TRANSLATION: Angela Rodel TRANSLATION DURING REHEARSALS: Lyudmil Dimitrov SCENIC DESIGN ASSISTANTS: Tsetzka Ivailova, Svetoslav Mitova COSTUME DESIGN ASSISTANTS: Nicol Mechkaraska PHOTOGRAPHER: Stefan Zdraveski Premiere: October 6, 7, 2026 INTERVIEWS Jernej Lorenci began work on "The Physics of Sorrow" at the National Theatre - Kultura.Bg, 22.06.2026 Georgi Gospodinov: To speak with everything – we had this superpower in childhood. Losing it later breeds sorrow – BTV, 3.10.2026