At the Foot of Vitosha

Author: Peyo Yavorov

Director: Dimana Peycheva

Set Designer: Teodor Kiryakov

Music: Atanas Peychev

Costume Designer: Dimana Peycheva

Cast: Izabela Ivanova, Damyana Petkova, Stanislava Zhiponova, Emanuel Kostadinov, Kalin Marinov, Mihail Nedyalkov, Nikola Manolevski, Ivaylo Dimitrov, Iliyan Dikov, Lyubomir Vasilev

“Yavorov wrote At the Foot of Vitosha in Paris, several months after the death of Mina Todorova. The love between the two was tender, light as air, childlike in its purity and naivety. Their love proved inconvenient and forbidden, unworthy in the eyes of the prejudices and attitudes of the time. Yavorov was not allowed to be with his beloved even in her final hour, and in the months that followed he would visit Mina’s grave—cast out, oppressed, painfully alone. The play At the Foot of Vitosha was born. A play about acceptance, redemption, judgment... Mila, Mina’s prototype, has secretly been in a relationship with Hristoforov for three whole years. Her brother—a new political player following the recent elections, a man devoid of imagination and empathy and an outspoken opponent of Hristoforov—hastily arranges for his sister to become engaged to Dr. Chipilovski, a suitor wholly unsuited to the refined and intelligent Mila. The secret relationship is revealed, the plans are thwarted, and Mila and Hristoforov are left with no choice but to ‘betray life.’ At the Foot of Vitosha is compared to Romeo and Juliet, and the parallels are undeniable. And although Romeo and Juliet ends tragically, paradoxically the sacrifice of the two young lovers, who fell in love under a fatal star, will bring about change. The two families will shake hands and see the futility of their dispute. In the play At the Foot of Vitosha, there is no change—and there will be none. Because the conflict is one of values. It lies in the bowed head that gives birth to spite. In suppressed emotions, in the muffled cry, in the impossibility of being different, worthy, proud of yourself. Of being an individual! And we still have not reached the individual... ”

— Dimana Peycheva