Burgas drama theatre

Worth a detour

The Adriana Budevska theatre is the other half of theatrical Burgas and the one locals are attached to. It stands on Svoboda Square in the old quarter of the centre, next to what used to be the courthouse. Everything is played in Bulgarian without surtitles, which makes it a limited proposition for a visitor — but the summer programme moves into the open-air theatre in the Sea Garden, where the setting carries you.

Story

Background

The town resolved to fund a permanent theatre in 1914, the acting company formed in the autumn of 1918, and the first production — Sukhovo-Kobylin's Krechinsky's Wedding — went up on the first of February 1919. It is named after Adriana Budevska, the actress who defined serious Bulgarian theatre at the turn of the century. After a renovation in 2011 the main auditorium seats two hundred and ninety-eight, with a chamber space of about a hundred and five named after Apostol Karamitev.

The repertory is conventional: comedies imported from the West End and Broadway, Bulgarian classics, the occasional new play, and a competition for graduating directors named after Borislav Chakrinov. Tickets run roughly ten to twenty euros, which is low enough that a bad choice does not matter much.

For a foreign visitor the practical question is language, and the answer is that there is no help with it: everything is in Bulgarian and there are no surtitles. Two ways round that — go to something you know cold, or go in July and August, when the company plays outdoors at the Summer Theatre in the Sea Garden and the evening carries you. The theatre stands on Svoboda Square in the older part of the centre, a short walk west of the pedestrian street, and there are two box offices: one on Atanas Sirekov square and one at the theatre itself. Curtain is normally seven.