Bulgaria’s interior minister has accused the theater director behind Hollywood A-lister John Malkovich’s production of a 19th-century comedy in Sofia of wrongdoing amid a crush of nationalist backlash that doomed the play’s opening night on November 7.
Protesters from nationalist groups and Bulgaria’s oldest writers’ union have demanded the expulsion of Malkovich and a ban on the play, which they call "bullshit" and "anti-Bulgarian."
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American Actor Malkovich's Premiere Blocked By Nationalist Protesters In Bulgaria
Police made no arrests after hundreds of picketers surrounded the Ivan Vazov National Theater to block public access to the opening night of Arms And The Man, the late Nobel Prize-winning Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw’s breakout work set during the Serbo-Bulgarian War.
But a day later, on November 8, the Sofia district prosecutor’s office announced it was launching a hooliganism case over the disturbances and the city’s mayor, Vasit Terziev, said the picket’s organizers will be fined for failing to stick to the “conditions” of a peaceful protest.
Caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said he had ordered the Interior Ministry to provide a “detailed description of the event and how who handled their duties and powers, especially the management staff.”
He added that “fists cannot be an argument in either politics or art.”
John Malkovich (right) at Bulgaria's National Theater on November 7
Waving Bulgarian flags and displaying banners like “Malkovich…, go home,” members of the unruly crowd shouted “Traitors!” as they jostled and intimidated ticketholders, including physically cornering and assailing veteran actor Vladimir Penev.
Filmmaker Theodore Ushev alleged that he was kicked, punched, doused, and spat on as police declined to provide protection.
On November 8, Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov blamed the theater’s general manager, Vasil Vasilev, for the disturbance, saying he had acted “inappropriately” and “escalated” tensions by emerging from the theater to try to talk to the protesters before Vasilev himself was attacked.
Video showed Vasilev being grabbed and struck multiple times as police tried to escort him into the venue.
The general manager of Bulgaria's National Theater is confronted by angry protesters in Sofia on November 7.
There were no indications that the widely awarded stage and screen star Malkovich, 70, who has acted in and staged previous theater productions in Bulgaria, was caught up in the melee outside.
Vasilev cited “unacceptable” and “enormous pressure” to censor the play before the premiere, and stated bluntly, “This was not a peaceful protest.”
The play was eventually performed in front of journalists but no spectators, and it was broadcast live by Bulgarian private television station bTV.
Afterward, bTV quoted Malkovich as saying he had suggested Arms And The Man after being approached to direct another play in Bulgaria. “I think it’s a charming and funny play,” he said.
Minister Ilkov said he “hopes” an audience will get to see the play on November 8.
The production’s critics have included the Union of Bulgarian Writers (SBP), and a handful of right-wing groups. Representatives of at least two political parties, the conservative VMRO-Bulgarian National Movement and the ultranationalist Revival (Vazrazhdane), were among the demonstrators. They demanded Vasilev’s resignation.
Atanas said 60 police officers had been deployed to the premiere in anticipation of possible confrontations, and reinforcements were sent as tensions rose.
The interior minister said there had been no arrests because there was no “data on persons who were presented as violators of public order.”
Ushev and others, including some politicians, have called for Atanas’s resignation in the wake of the failure to maintain order outside the theater.
Defenders including from the center-right We Continue The Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition called the actions of the crowd “an attack against freedom of speech, art, and free creative spirit.”
At a press conference in late October, Malkovich said the outcry and public attacks on the production were not “a very smart idea.” He dismissed the notion that he had come to Bulgaria to mock the country.
Caretaker Culture Minister Nayden Todorov told bTV he “suspect[s] political interference” in the protest and said there was no place for censorship in art.
Set in wartime Bulgaria in 1885 with a sometimes buffoonish cast of Bulgarian, Swiss, Serbian, and Russian characters, Shaw’s play is widely regarded as a humorous but stinging critique of war and perceived hypocrisy.
Shaw suggested the story was nearly complete before he decided on Bulgaria as the setting.