Shibil

For the first time on a Bulgarian stage, a theatrical realization of the famous story "Shibil" by Yordan Yovkov, published in his collection "Old Mountain Legends," comes to life on the stage of the Rousse Drama Theater. This is one of the strongest and most beautiful stories in the writer's oeuvre, having become a symbol of a tragic love. The strong, masculine personality of Shibil, the terrifying haiduk, intertwines with his great love for Rada, only to be cut short by the treacherous hand of Veliko Kehaya and Murad Bey. It is precisely in this intertwining that the story elevates the power of a personality and the power of a love mowed down by the petty conflicts of petty people. Yovkov tells the story with very strong poetry, where every action resembles a magnificent, powerful theater in which the Bulgarian national atmosphere shines in its height and its fall. The author of the literary composition and director of the performance, Orlin Dyakov, creates a spectacle that recreates this famous story on stage through word, folk dance, and folk music. This meeting of theater, music, and dance is very suitable for the theatrical atmosphere of Yovkov's narrative, because their intertwining increases the power of impact of experiencing a love and its tragic breaking. Thus, plasticity, word, and song in their entirety become components of a highly poetic performance.