"4 + 1" (2023)

Author: Dimitar Kabakov
Director Nadia Pancheva, music - Asen Avramov, stage designer and costumes - Yasmin Mandelli, dedicated to Yanaki Manasiev's birthday - November 7, 1932

Actors - Irena Nencheva, Doriana Galabova, Margarita Kostova, Marieta Kalupova, Sergey Konstantinov

This premiere marks the beginning of the newest initiative of the Pleven theater - "THEATER IN THE GALLERY" - a partnership between the representative cultural institutions of the city of Pleven - the "Ilia Beshkov" Art Gallery, the "Art Center - Pleven" Gallery and the Drama and Puppet Theater "Ivan Radoev".

The play "4 + 1" is dedicated to the great Bulgarian artist Yanaki Manasiev (1932 - 1978), one of the best and most underappreciated artists of the last century. Called the "Bulgarian Picasso and Matisse", the main theme of his work is women. It is the space of the gallery and its exhibits that become a natural and picturesque setting for the meeting of the four heroines, muses of the Artist, gathered to honor his memory.

In this unusual theatrical composition between documentary, fine art, poetry and fiction, the destinies of four women - different in age and life experience - unfold.

From that Keratsa, who, while cleaning the artist's studio, turns to her astonishment into his favorite model, to the woman from Odessa, who refuses to be painted because she is a countess or not - all of them, through their colors, reveal to the viewers the biography of the extraordinary and powerful figure of the creator Yanaki Manasiev, poetically woven into the play through the image of the Artist.

Photos from rehearsals - Tihomir Hristov