The premiere of “Physics of Sadness“ based on the novel by Georgi Gospodinov, presented on October 6 and 7 at the National Theater “Ivan Vazov“, aroused interest among theater critics and cultural journalists. The first published comments are positive, but along with the assessments of the acting and the director's approach, there are also reservations about the duration and unusual structure of the performance.
The Slovenian director Jernej Lorenzi chooses not to follow the plot of the novel literally. Instead, it constructs a stage work in which the themes of memory, childhood, loss, and loneliness are unfolded through the actors' personal stories. This approach transforms the literary text into a starting point for a collective experience, but at the same time creates the prerequisites for a divergence from the expectations of the audience, who are looking for a traditional theatrical adaptation.
Some theater critics admit that they initially had doubts about whether the novel could be successfully transferred to the stage. The reason is the lack of a traditional storyline and a clear dramaturgical structure in the literary source. However, after watching the performance, they change their initial attitude and positively assess the impact of the stage narrative, built around the personal experiences of the performers.
The play's aspiration is not to reproduce the book, but to create an independent theatrical work inspired by its themes. It is this distinction that is important in evaluating the play, as its success cannot be measured solely by a one-to-one performance with the novel.
The interaction between stage and audience is also important to note. At the end of the first part, the audience is invited to go on stage and examine the objects that they or their parents grew up with, but with a request to "respect the past" and not touch them.
And although there is a discrepancy between the book and the play, there is one very strong connection between the two, namely the minotaur, performed by Dimitar Nikolov. The rest of the play develops mainly through memories, music and personal experiences of the actors.
Lorentzi himself explains that he consciously chose not to dramatize the novel in the traditional sense. His goal was to bring the spirit of the book to the stage, transforming the individual experience of the reader into a collective experience between actors and audience.
The common denominator among the first critical reactions is the recognition of the strong emotional impact of the production and the unusual way in which it uses personal memory as theatrical material. The differences are primarily related to the question of how much the length, the fragmentary structure and the distance from the novel help or hinder the perception of the spectacle.
„Physics of Sadness“ can be described as a production that provokes not only an emotional reaction, but also a professional conversation about the boundaries between literature, theater and personal message.
The next performances of “Physics of Sadness“ have been announced for October 29, November 6 and 24, as well as December 2 and 16 on the Big Stage of the National Theater