The famous actress entered the film to see how Viktor Bozhinov works
Years ago, I don’t remember how many years ago, a German critic named Torsten Maas quoted my exclamation on the occasion of Lilia Abadjieva and the MGT “Behind the Channel” play “The Sorrows of Young Werther” in Germany: “We are already starting to ask ourselves – how are we have lived so far without Lilia Abadjieva?”. The question was asked in a material of the “24 Chasa” newspaper, in which I am now trying to fit in the limit of one page the mastery and credo of this famous director.
But the more interesting thing is that the reason to talk about Lilia Abadjieva is the big surprise of seeing her playing an office secretary in the BNT TV series “Vina” with director Viktor Bozhinov. I like the film because of the theme and the actors, I compare it to “A Good Year”, where the modern manager Russell Crowe inherits a vineyard from his late uncle in France and slowly decides to abandon his career and become a winemaker. The difference is that in Ridley Scott’s film, the characters do not enter into conflicts between private interests and municipal property, and there are no crooked officials and auctioneers, no bribes – everything is left to feelings.
Lili Abadjieva accepts the producers’ offer to participate in “Vina” in the role of the secretary of a municipal boss (Misho Bilalov), because she wants to see how the director Victor Bozhinov works.
She already has a small biography of participation in film productions
She was filmed in footage from Yavor Gardev’s “Zift”, Emil Hristov’s “Zincograf”, and in Ivan Cherkelov’s latest film. She likes the intensity of the shooting process – on the first day of “Vina” she shot 6 scenes. “It’s a challenge for me! – says the theater director. – I have no ambitions to pursue an acting career. It happened that I got into roles of actresses who fell ill and had to keep the bed. I even replaced Stoyanka Mutafova in “Revisor” (a sensational production in the Satirical Theater with the participation of Stefan Danailov, Dimitar Manchev, Nikolay Urumov, Georgi Rusev, Konstantin Kotsev and other stars. The sick Stoyana could not imagine the performance being canceled because of her and called the director of the Satire Rashko Mladenov, stating that only Lily Abadjieva can replace her on stage – b.a.). It’s a big challenge because it’s one thing to show the actors while you’re rehearsing as a director, it’s another thing to get into the different reality of the performance. It is an exceptional experience! It is also interesting for the colleagues – when a new actor enters, it becomes another performance. Viktor Bozhinov asked me if I had observed how secretaries work. I answered in the negative, but he reassured me. He said he would take pictures and if he didn’t say anything, then he was happy. It creates another, different from the theater process and I find it very interesting. Mikhail Bilalov is an exceptional partner in complex and responsible communication. For me, these are priceless meetings! I’ve thought about making a TV movie, but I haven’t decided yet.”
Few people know that Lily Abadjieva began to study medicine, guided by her assertive charity to help the suffering. But in the third year, he decided to leave, after doing exercises in a psychiatric clinic, he experienced the patients in front of him as a director, in order to imagine why they acted there. So to speak, he identifies himself with the characters of his personal performance. And the only place where this identification is legal and profitable is the theater.
After NATFIZ, Lily Abadjieva blew up the quiet traditions of the Bulgarian theater by assigning actors to perform the female roles in “Hamlet”.
She explains this attraction of hers with her interest in the androgynous image of the modern man: “This idea is not subordinate to the Elizabethan theater, in which, in principle, female roles are played by men. Rather, it is an expression of love for the ideal image, which is a philosophical problem. The woman’s consciousness is the man who, without love, would not have the inspiration to achieve the high goals of his life. But love is not his only life. Although at the time I believed that the aesthetic manifestation of a woman’s love was through a man.”
Shakespeare remains an abiding interest for the young director. To put it, they invite her to America, Germany, Russia. Wherever he works, he always casts. In the US, it won the Independent and Los Angeles Times Independent Critics Award for Best Director. Her Russian performance “Romeo and Juliet” in the Moscow theater of Sergei Prokhanov also won a bunch of awards around the world. In our country, her “Romeo and Juliet” caused another sensation when Juliet was played by Sylvester Silvestrov, her mother Signora Capulet by Julian Vergov, the wet nurse by Alexander Nikolov, Romeo by Vlado Karamazov. In general, in her Shakespeare productions, Lilia Abadjieva subverts the tragic scenes through irony and formulas of the movement theater – repetition of gestures and mise-en-scène, dance, gymnastic figures, elements of silent cinema, musical counter to the dramatic action. After her guest appearance in Germany with “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Goethe, this type of theater was called with admiration and even envy “choreographic”.
Lily Abadjieva relies in her performances on the invaluable support in scenography and costumes of her husband Vasil Abadjiev (their son Ivan is named after his grandfather, the legendary coach of weightlifters Ivan Abadjiev). A vivid proof of this partnership is her last Shakespeare performance at the Revival Theater, “Winter’s Tale” – a magical performance, amazingly arranged as a rosary of scenes in the small space, with men in the female roles and a great effect of the costumes. Students from
her acting class at Luben Grois Theater College
Just as she is extreme and spectacular in her performances, so is Lilia Abadjieva in her outfits and cosmetics. And that is why she is also considered an extravagant leader of modern young direction. Today she bravely declares that the moral decay in our country can be cured in the theater if the role of the director is revived: “The director’s college must be returned to every theater. Because by birth, our theater is similar to the Russian and German ones, which have an intendant, a director responsible for financial contracts, for the maintenance of the stage and sets, for the technological machinery. He cares about each actor and the development of his potential. The Bulgarian theater has the achievements of several generations, but this continuity of morality and aesthetics is threatened with destruction. The financial framework of delegated budgets also helps to demoralize the theater. We have no memory of anything!”.
