THE LIGHT BLUE WAGON
by Andrus Kivirähk (Estonia)
directed by Blagoy Boychev
assistant director: Tsveta Ermenkova
Starring: Vasil Chitanov, Bogdan Kazandjiev, Nedyalka Raeva, Alexander Uzunov, Kostadin Zhekov
Translation and annotation: Ivaylo Zlatkov
performance-reading from the program of ProText #11, part of the Goethe-Institut's New Stages Southeast Festival for New Dramaturgy
The play The Light Blue Wagon by Estonian contemporary playwright, writer and journalist Andrus Kivirähk is one of the most referenced and successful dramaturgical texts in Estonian literature. It is super-comic and in the author's unique ironic style. Through the prank-types and absurd mise-en-scenes, Kiviříák subtly cuts through the layers of Estonian mentality and contemporary Estonian society in their absurd essence. "The Light Blue Wagon is a play about the author's generation, which was just over 30 at the time of its publication and staging in 2003, and about his delusional nostalgia for Soviet times, caricatured and absurd in a characteristic way. The play addresses many relevant contemporary issues through familiar references to totalitarian and post-totalitarian times. A text that, although written 18 years ago, sounds extremely contemporary, especially in the former socialist countries. And Andrus Kivirähk's dictum "Stupidity is stronger than wisdom" explains why his plays, and this one in particular, are infectiously funny and especially surreal.
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About the author:
Andrus Kivirähk (1970) is a contemporary Estonian writer, playwright, satirist, feuilletonist, screenwriter and journalist. He is the most popular Estonian writer of the 21st century. A graduate in journalism and a contributor to the. "An Estonian daily newspaper, Kivirjah is the most diverse, most innovative and most significant figure in contemporary Estonian literature. The author switches masterfully from one style to another, from journalism to drama, short stories and novels, and from children's literature to television and film scripts. Kvirjahk is characterised by a specific humour for which adjectives such as "black" and "absurd" pale into insignificance and which can make even the most dedicated reader or viewer laugh. Since 1994, Kivirjahk has won nearly 40 awards in Estonia, Latvia and France, and since 1992 more than 20 of his plays and one of his novels have been successfully staged and 12 films based on his scripts have been made. Kivirähk's work has been translated into English, Dutch, Hungarian, French, Danish, German, Russian, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovenian, Bulgarian and other languages, and in 2014 the writer won the French Grand Prize for a Foreign Language Novel for The Man Who Spoke Snake Tongue.
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About ProText:
The first ProText was created in 2007. The main idea of the event was to promote contemporary playwriting, to attract young audiences to alternative contemporary theatrical forms, to expand the territory of art and culture. ProText is in fact an encounter of the audience with the theatrical text - it is literally there, projected in front of the audience's eyes. Over the years ProText has gained popularity and the 36 Monkeys team has held several workshops related to the methodology of this (un)stage form at the invitation of foreign companies. The platform was the first forum for the presentation of more than 35 contemporary European and Bulgarian plays. Since 2014, ProText has partnered with EURODRAM, and since 2021 it has been part of the programme of the Festival for New Dramaturgy organised by the Goethe-Institut.
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The project is realized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund.
The event is supported by Sofia Municipality.
ProText 11 is in partnership with Goethe-Institut, RCCI "Topocentrala", TR "Sfumato", Swimming Pool and Eurodram.
