Pretty Clara
by Reiner Werner Fassbinder
director Plamen Markov
set design Nevena Beleva and Victor Andreev
music Assen Avramov
premiere 6 October 2001
CAST
Irini Jambonas
Hristo Moutafchiev
Prodan Nonchev
Maya Dragomanska
Stoyo Mirkov
Tanyo Marinov
Ivan Petrushinov
Petar Kalchev
Emil Kotev
Vassilena Atanassova
Stefan Iliev
Andrey Turlakov









"In Plamen Markov's production death has a pretty woman's face, she serves glasses of poison as if at a Russian roulette - each time the victim has the same chances as the murderess to survive or else perish. This is one of the many suggestions the director has made thus changing considerably the original notions of the text. There is nothing withheld or half-told in this production. Everything has been said (in many words), with determination, denying any other interpretation. Clara is the victim, not a monster. Irini Jambona's Clara is a sensual and strong woman, willing to pay a high price for love and freedom."
Anelia Yaneva,
"Capital",
20-26 Oct. '01
"The smell of skin is suffocating, as are the air of violence and gestures of cruelty. Clara finds a way out in the unavoidable, a fragility in this terrifying stability and lack of vitality. Man is most fragile."
Nikola Vandov,
"Kultura",
2 Nov. '01

"Pretty Clara" is one of the most exquisite and exciting theatre events since the beginning of the season. In Markov's interpretation the series of dead bodies is not merely a ghastly crime. It is a struggle and coming to terms with one's own self, a loss of criteria, desperate search of a solution… death becomes something completely different. It is somebody else's decision on your future, a habitual event, even surreal laughter. And what this performance is most valued for is the rediscovery of Irini Jambona's talent."
Maria Kassimova,
"Demokratsia",
10 Oct. '01

"The director's greatest achievement is casting Irini Jambona as Clara. The actress shines with the full glamour of her talent, wholeheartedly giving and equally appreciated by the audience."
Liliana Kozova

"A dynamic and realistic spectacle with shades of grotesque and stench of blood. An intense, almost cinematic directing composition combined with expressive and naturalistic acting. A witch, a monstrous schizophrenic or simply a woman humiliated to blood, who stands for her own rights in a weird way - who is bloody Clara? In the performance of Irini Jambona she is all of those. Aggressive amplitudes of an infantile reaction and fierce strife describe best how her violent femininity naturally finds "reasonable" motives to establish justice over dead bodies. Despite lacking more exquisite internal nuances or at least hesitations, Clara-Jambona is convincing with the consistency with which she follows the "logic" of her character in a self-destructive defense. The parodical mesas sung by the poor souls after each murder add a sense of black humour to an already sinister performance. Which is to be also remembered with its unresolved end. And reminds of Fassbinder's movie "All I Want is for you to Love Me". With the subconscious "before I kill all of you".
Patricia Nikolova,
"Sega",
11 Oct. '01