Lady Macbeth, or 7 Ways to Kill Someone

"Lady Macbeth, or 7 Ways to Kill Someone" — by Georg Genoux and Anastasia Tarhanova, dramaturgical adaptation and verse by Georgi Tenev. The play views Shakespeare's "Macbeth" through the eyes of Bulgarian theatre. Past and present each seek their place on stage: an aging, half-forgotten actress is directed by a radical young stage director. An old theatre "lion" counts down his final days with one last performance. A superstar shakes up the theatre with a new concept. A manipulative beauty uses the charms of age and body... Actors, actresses and directors all want to fulfil their dreams or their obsessions. Among them, even the unremarkable stagehand Bogdan has his own plans. The theatre is gripped by passions for power, love, artistic longing, and pride. Everything revolves around the familiar monologue of Lady Macbeth. In those words cries out not so much the thirst for power as the drive to overcome the humanity that stands in the way of committing terrible deeds. Fate has decreed for the stagehand Bogdan a peculiar theatrical destiny: to pass through seven productions of "Macbeth," in seven different theatres across Bulgaria, across seven different eras. Having tied his life to the theatre, Bogdan gradually becomes a prisoner of the play itself. His dream of standing on stage, of being Macbeth, expresses everything about his unspoken hopes. Ever more insistent, ever more devoted, Bogdan is now ready to do even the unthinkable... and nothing can stop him. The tragedy "Macbeth" tells of the rise and brutal end of a Scottish nobleman, a hero of the battlefield. He is prophesied to become king, though he himself doesn't believe in his fate. Then his wife, Lady Macbeth, intervenes. Her famous monologue is a call to the dark forces to come to her aid. Its purpose is to silence everything human, to end all hesitation so that the treacherous plan succeeds: King Duncan is removed, and Macbeth succeeds him. Once the murder is committed, the horror of a dark conscience sets in. The couple is driven to catastrophe — Macbeth becomes a tyrant, while Lady Macbeth collapses mentally and dies. Their tragedy illustrates the condition of a person crushed by the weight of their own deeds. The play is staged here for the first time. Starring: Boryana Yovcheva, Ovanes Torosyan, Milko Yovchev, Zhivko Dzhuranov. Directed by Georgi Tenev; set design by Georg Genoux; music by Anastasia Tarhanova.