Itzko Fintzi - a Remarkable Mr. Paul
Theatre Off the Channel's latest premiere is a new step in its repertory policy
The Restitution Bill - a product of the so called democratic changes in our country - generally has a comic effect on the individual. Bulgarian authors have not yet concentrated their artistic effort on this issue. German dramatist Tankred Dorst, founder of the Bonn Biennial, (the most prestigious European forum for dramaturgy), addressed it in "Mr. Paul". His work rightly became best play for 1995 and was first staged in Bochum by avant-garde director Peter Zadek.
The Little City Theatre´s achievement is its latest premiere. Moreover, this is the first staging of "Mr. Paul" in Bulgaria. This new theatrical adventure of composer Garo Ashikyan, known more for his music, is yet his most successful one. The young director masterfully directs a first and second plan with the craftsmanship of filmmaking - the author's text is performed on the proscenium while in the background painful things happen.
Itzhak Finzi's Mr. Paul, Hristo Mutafchiev's Helm and Biliana Kazakova's Anita are indeed characters who will trouble the minds for long… Though seemingly peripheral, the role of autistic Anita might finally bring Biliana Kazakova an award for up-coming star. As for Mr. Paul, it naturally is another wild acting mare Itzah Finzi has saddled, but this could hardly surprise anybody.
Old Paul and loony Anita are the most helpless and free people in this story. The tragicomic old man who makes a living by stuffing animals and embalming political leaders, gradually piles so many meanings and problems about that one might in fact argue what is central to the play indeed. Whether the "stench of decay", which Mr. Paul claims he always overcomes, or the obvious collapse of greed, or the hermetism of the philistine, or the exchange of the property at home for freedom. Or the incredible attempts of the free man to protect himself… It is up to the audience to decide really.
Patricia Nikolova,
Jan. ´03

"This play obviously allows for a naturalistic approach…
The set design (Alexander Molyanov) and the costumes (Milena Pantaleeva) state an inclination towards ultimate truthfulness - even the wallpaper is there. Unlike the beautiful pieces of furniture the author mentions, each with its own history and atmosphere, the stage is full of remains of furnishing familiar from the standard middle-class model - the concrete panel building.
It is especially notable that director Garo Ashikyan has refused the dark humour and the grotesque clownade of the author's culmination in the murder scene. After what seems like eternal tolerance, Helm is brought to utter hysteria in the impossibility of removing Mr. Paul from his way. He slaughters him with an ax |just as Razkolnikov murdered the old woman) and that is done in a typically farcical style… In the production the murder scene is in complete darkness, and the naturalistic logic leaves one with the impression that it has only happened in Helm's mind. In this production aristocratic Mr. Paul appears only now, to return in his silk robe.
The motto of the play is a quotation from the Grimm Brothers' tale "The Difficult Child" which is allegorically connected to the play… Mentally challenged Anita, whom the author has given silence, has found movement in the production - very well interpreted by Biliana Kazakova. The character to an extent is like the other side to the protagonist Mr. Paul, which is an achievement of the director.
Lidia Vulkova (Luise) also manages to find the ambiguity of her character - equally ridiculous as it is real in the nuances between the absurd and the romantic, in search of a more complex, not literal interpretation.
In most of the performance Itzhak Finzi is in monologue. … He moves from senile helplessness - physical and mental - to the vibrant resourcefulness of the playing man, unnoticeably changing and yet so much himself - sprawled across impatience, intentions and plans Mr. Paul. Full of life and cunning, slipping away but still remaining the very essence of him, which - when necessary - would even claim helpless. An actor with an extremely theatrical presence, eccentric, Itzhak Finzi overcomes the limitations of the interpretation and finds possibilities for more layers than one. His internal flexibility draws the outlines of a notable intellectual presence behind the obvious senile inadequacy. He creates the impression of weight and immobility -metaphorical standing for the un-useful creatures who through their statics become a dynamic obstacle to movement. And it is in this theatrical remodeling of static and dynamic that the actor manages to bring out the layers of meaning in the text."
Ana Topaldjikova
"Literaturen vestnik", 29 Jan. '03