The Drama and Puppet Theatre – Vratsa presents as part of the BALKAN THEATRE FESTIVAL
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WELCOME TO BULGARIA 2
by Zdrava Kamenova and Gergana Dimitrova

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Welcome to Bulgaria – the country where the oldest processed gold in the world was discovered and the one with the lowest income per capita in the European Union. Here, people can achieve ANYTHING as long as they unite. And they try, but something always gets in the way – the television stations and reporters, people in BMWs speeding at 300 km/h, women who want to be emancipated, those who tear down monuments and those who build them, romantic scammers, meteorologists, presidents, enterprising individuals from small towns and villages with illegal businesses, great powers with sinister plans, influencers with meaningless videos, and above all, the thick fog that stubbornly blankets the entire country and refuses to lift. What could unite these vastly different characters? Only a miracle. And indeed, one day it happens. Against the backdrop of the total disunity that has taken over modern Bulgaria, a child gets lost in the forest. The schemes and romantic scams are the means of survival for entire Bulgarian villages. A dense fog has enveloped the entire country, while emergency reports in news broadcasts focus on preserving the monument to the Soviet Army, the stability of the lev, and Bulgarian values. "Welcome to Bulgaria 2" sketches the desires and emotions of various groups of people in contemporary Bulgaria – from the president to the residents of small communities, lonely women, and the man in the BMW who drives so fast and dangerously that he manages to break through the space-time continuum and find himself in 1954. With much humor, self-irony, and love, the authors Zdrava Kamenova and Gergana Dimitrova create a snapshot of modern Bulgarian reality, based on actual events from recent years. The unusual situations the characters experience turn their reality into a series of metaphors, drawing attention to the value of disappearing solidarity, vanishing smiles, lost humanity, and love for one another.