"Blood splatters all over the stage, heaps of bodies fall before the very eyes of the audience in young director Boyan Ivanov's debut production on Sofia stage. As he himself stated, there is so much violence in this play that there comes a moment when it all seems simply ridiculous to the contemporary viewer and can only result in sheer laughter. The expressedly butaphorical plastic swords and chopped off heads enhance the comic sounding of otherwise tragic events. "I shall roast your heads and then this obnoxious, double meat loaf to your mother server", says Titus overcme with vengeance. This line seems to a great extent telling enough of the production's atmosphere."
"Dnevnik"
7 Nov. '02

„Boyan Ivanov couldn't care less for the taste of the masses and has achieved a European product worthy of any major festival. The production makes fun of the naivety of the leader who is committed to serving his country honestly. While he abides to the law everybody else takes advantage of him. And when he decides to become the devil himself, it is way too late – there are too many bodies all over the place.
This horrible fool is played by Izhak Finzi. His Titus is easily taken advantage of by a woman - Tamora, queen of the Goths (Ilka Zafirova). She is helped in her schemes and cruelty by the ultimate cynic and villain Aaron (Ivan Petrushinov). Incredible costumes and scenery – simply hanging horizontal surfaces – the work of designer Marina Raichinova."
Dimitar Staikov
"24 Chasa"
7 Nov. 02

Titus
after William Shakespeare

Stage adaptation, stage and
musical directing Boyan Ivanov
Set and costume design Marina Raichinova
Choreography Margarita Gradechlieva
Premiere 6 November 2002
„Itzko Finzi is both funny and frightening as Titus. There is excellent harmony between the great actor and the young directr who graduated the Frankfurt theatre academy. Both have a sense for the grotesque, they both work along the West European standards in the genre. The atmosphere of the age and its passions have been superbly found in the restored excerpts of authentic Roman music in Boyan’s own pieces. The characters are between the comic and the tragic with bodies dropping all around them and a storm of intriguing flesh. And one of the great Shakespeare’s favourite statements of destiny pulling the strings of each and every has been marvelously revealed here in the set and costumes of Marina Raichinova."
Albena Atanassova
"Standart"
8 Nov. 02

"This extraordinary classical text sounds more than ambivalent in this production. The director obviously wants to walk the thin, fine line of parody, so anything happening on stage could be at once tragic and funny, frightening and ironic. The mere choice of an actor like Izhak Finzi for the role of Titus and Ilka Zafirova for Tamora, queen of the Goths already allow for the performance to build upon parody indeed."
Svetlana Pancheva
"Duma"
11 Nov. 02
CAST
Izhak Finzi, Ilka Zafirova, Ilia Raev, Prodan Nonchev, Irini Jambonas, Ivan petrushinov, Maxim Genchev, Tanyu Marinov, Hristo Moutafchiev, Styo Mirkov, Emil Kotev, Petar Kalchev, Stefan Iliev, Svetlana Bonin, Nikolay Todorov, Yulian Petrov

BOYAN IVANOV

"This is one of the most rarely staged plays by Shakespeare and I have always been intrigued by the thin line between the tragic and the comic."