The Shipment

THE SHIPMENT

authors: Two Seagulls (Iva Petroni and Boil Banov)

director: Boil Banov

designer: Yuliana Voikova - Nyman

music: Martin Karov

Cast: Zornitsa Konstantinova, Nevena Tsaneva, Evgeni Budinov, Stoyan Pamukov, Tihomir Blagoev, Dimitrina Teneva, Hristo Mutafchiev

"Everyone from Europe is ready to wash dishes in America, as long as they are free. And you want to go from America to Europe to wash dishes so that you can be free. I don't understand you!"

This line from the play The Shipment clearly sets out the theme of the false American dream. A dream wrapped in cellophane, systematically and uncritically passed down from generation to generation. A sugary notion of material prosperity that has become an emblem of the good life. Happiness is attainable, as long as it is paid for. If you're on welfare, you eat hamburgers freely. If you wash dishes, you eat hamburgers even more freely. If you drive a truck, you eat hamburgers with the utmost freedom. Freedom in America is guaranteed! And, of course, anyone who lives in America is a big deal! So big, in fact, that there's no need to know what is happening outside the promised continent. No need to know that there are other countries, much less where they are located. No need to think.

And if, after all, the American citizen is forced to think, then great confusion ensues. Because the one who eats has unlearned how to think and has learned only how to get by. See the endlessly funny and absurd mix-ups in a classic American family faced with an unusual choice. So unusual, in fact, that they even have to find out where the country of Bulgaria is and how many centuries old it is.

Boil Banov