During the upcoming 2024/2025 theatre season, the world-renowned American actor, director, and producer John Malkovich will come to Bulgaria in preparation for his future stage production “Arms and the Man” by Bernard Shaw. This was agreed-upon after a series of talks between Malkovich and the general manager of the National Тheatre, Vasil Vasilev. This will be the first of several upcoming collaborative projects between the director and the theatre. The preliminary meetings with the National theatre’s troupe will be held during the 2023/2024 season, while the rehearsals will commence in September 2024.
The action of Bernard Shaw’s comedy “Arms and the Man” is set in Bulgaria and most characters are Bulgarian. The plot is based on the Battle of Slivnitsa during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. “Arms and the Man” was first performed in 1894 in London.
John Malkovich was a guest on the stage of the National Тheatre together with one of the most popular Lithuanian actresses – Ingeborga Dapkunaite with the performance “In the Solitude of Cotton Fields” by Bernard-Marie Koltes, directed by Timofey Kulyabin.
John Malkovich was born in 1953. In 1976 he became one of the founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. He moved to New York in 1983 and a year later he was performing on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman. His film debut came with “Places in the Heart” (1984), for which he received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His directorial debut came with the film “The Dancer Upstairs” (2002).
Winner of an Emmy Award, he has been nominated for the prestigious Satellite, Bafta, Saturn, Oscar, and Golden Globe Awards.
Photo: Bozhidar Markov