Seven Nights of Viola Karavelova

On April 16, 1925, the dome of the "Holy King" Cathedral (today known as "Saint Nedelya") in Sofia was blown up. More than 130 people were killed. 500 were injured. As a result of the swift resistance by the authorities, which began on the same day, more than 150 people disappeared without a trace within just two weeks. One of them was the journalist Yosef Herbst – the husband of Viola Karavelova, the older sister of Lora Karavelova. And while Viola wanders and roams the streets of Sofia in search of her missing husband, while she, through her love, tries to rise above the political antagonism that divides people solely into enemies, Bulgaria, torn apart by the tension between power and opposition, by a refugee crisis, hunger, debts, coups, uprisings, assassinations, and political murders, experiences one of its most turbulent periods. Unfortunately, her story, although comparable in tragedy to that of her sister, has been forgotten. This performance, inspired by real events, represents an attempt to correct this mistake, as well as to trace the inevitable link between social processes and personal experiences. And to ask: Is it possible to find a strategy for living that excludes the idea of an enemy? Boyan Kracholov is one of the most interesting contemporary theater directors. He is the recipient of the ASKEER 2017 award in the "Rising Star" category for the performance "This IS NOT Hamlet" and has been nominated for the ASKEER 2021 for contemporary Bulgarian dramaturgy for "The Coin." In 2024, he won the IKAR award for direction for "The Petrovs in the Flu and Around It." In 2025, the premiere of the performance "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" will take place, with which he makes his debut on the Main Stage of the National Theatre and for which he receives a nomination for the IKAR Award in the "Direction" category. From the academic year 2026/2027, Boyan Kracholov is an assistant in the acting and directing class of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yavor Gerdiev at NATFIZ "Krastyo Sarafov".