Theatre

Performance of Rhythm & Blues 2
by the Little City Theatre ‘Off the Channel’, Sofia

19:00, Halls of the Bulgarian Embassy

About the play:

The “father” of this show is Prof. Rumen Tsonev – a composer of international repute, head of the Theatre Department at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, PhD in Art Sciences, and a Doctor of Sorbonne University in Paris. He is the composer of the music for 180 plays, films, documentaries and cartoons, the winner of many awards, including the Bergman Award (Stockholm 2000). Rhythm & Blues added to these two new Bulgarian awards – Askeer 2007 and the annual award for theatrical music of the Maestro Dimitar Valchev Foundation.

What is Rhythm & Blues? “Life as it could have been… if it were music” responds Prof. Rumen Tsonev. In the show, the stage is completely possessed by music. The actors will overfill the auditorium, your ears and your souls with music, including favourite pieces from various genres.

The actors of the Little City Theatre “Off the Channel” swim on the stage like white swans. The flock of these gracious birds is led by Petar Kalchev, Albena Mihova, Stela Stoyanova, and Zheni Aleksandrova-Lecheva, who will dance on their tiptoes to the immortal music of P. I. Tchaikovsky.

You will see the actors Filip Avramov, Yordanka Ilova, Stoyan Mladenov, Milena Spiridonova, Hristina Pipova, Krasimir Spiridonov and Simeon Bonchev; you will listen to the music of some of the most popular classical pieces and you will hear incredible stories about the lives of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Rossini, Puccini, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. You will learn why Mozart’s Nachtmusik is Kleine, you will see balance of eight hands and many more miracles of stage art.

“We wish to present the complex repertoire of the show in a lucid and funny way – with the works of the most remarkable world composers, to make elite art intelligible for the least tempted audience. Jokes in the shows are not aimed at the classics but are rather self-irony of the young actors, aimed at their imperfection when compared to renowned masters”, says Prof. Rumen Tsonev.

The stage design and costumes are by Petya Stoykova and the video design by Svetoslav Kokalov, Vladimir Aleksiev and Filip Avramov.