Non-Human

"NON-HUMAN" is a look inward at ourselves, here and now, which with care and anxiety tries to better understand how we got here and, above all, how we can move forward together, guided by our most humane dreams rather than our most frantic urges. Weaving fragments of Bulgarian history, quotes from famous personalities, and poetry, the play delicately outlines the chaos of things that historically and culturally divide us and which easily and repeatedly become the basis for drawing dividing lines among us. But it also finds the threads of what permanently and firmly binds us into a community and society. Precisely the theatrical stage, for which good dialogue is foundational, is the most appropriate place to conduct this urgently needed conversation in our society, torn apart by irreconcilable extremes. The possibility of remembering that pain and anger, caused by disagreement with the other and the feeling of injustice, are shared feelings that we all experience, regardless of what we believe, is the first step back towards us-together. "Not only as a director, but as a citizen and a human being, I am obliged and responsible not to be at peace and to seek what is happening to the human being. This is my theme, my big question that I put on stage. It is necessary for the theatrical stage to be relevant, not only to reflect and comment on contemporary and past events and problems, but to try to expand, to search, to delve into the micro- and macrocosm of today's human being, to be its space for memory, a place for conscience and critical imagination. The impulse for the conception of "NON-HUMAN" started from conversations with Stefan Ivanov at a moment when both of us saw that there are things that interest us, and we could unite them as each of us complements the other in building the idea and its realization in the stage space." Lyubomir Kolaksov, director "The contemporary context in which this intention is placed is the artistic and human instinct for non-adaptability to: cruelty, fake news, injustice, propaganda, violence, moral ugliness, the resuscitation of the radical right, and the strengthening of imperial and other ideologies that incite anti-human sentiments with manipulative goals. There is an artistic and human need for a stage intention that dares to risk looking at these phenomena not only from a condemning and stating point of view, but also from the perspective of a process of possible restorative justice – how the creator of enemies does not create enemies, how the aggressor does not aggress, and how and in what way an aggressor, enemy, and victim can continue their lives not based on revenge, punishment, (self-)isolation, forgiveness, and a vicious circle of cruelty, but on justice and reconciliation. "How can a complex society disintegrating into small communities live together and be united not by hatred towards someone, but by another type of motivation?" is the key question and gesture of the potential performance." Stefan Ivanov, dramatist "NON-HUMAN" is the third project realized under the "Apostol Karamitev" Program. The program launched in 2023 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Bulgarian actor Apostol Karamitev. The main goal of the initiative is to provide an opportunity for the presentation of different forms and aesthetics, to offer new, interdisciplinary perspectives on theater-making, to discover interesting authors, ideas, and practices, to issue new artistic challenges to the troupe and staff of the theater, and to give visibility to new or unknown authors to the National Theatre who will bring their own understanding of a stage work.