theatre

The contemporary British novelist of Pakistani descent Hanif Kureishi (1954), a highly prolific writer, expresses his artistic credo through a character, a theatre producer, who claims that an artistic work can be successful if it discusses the topical issues of race, class and sex through farce. Kureishi"s seven novels deal with these problems in varying degrees. His best novel so far, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), encompasses them all in a very impressive way. By focusing on the topical issue of race in present-day Britain Kureishi enriches contemporary British fiction.

The attempts to strengthen theatrical art in Bulgaria pass from amateur theatre initiatives in Bulgarian National Revival through subsidized companies after the Liberation to the creation of the first state theater group in Sofia. Bulgarians take the first theatrical acts as ‘foreign’, forced and unnatural elements in their regular life. The ‘foreign’-ness remains its specific feature until its recognition for a cultural institution in the last decade of 19th century. Bulgarians ‘open’ to the European world and gradually the mistrust in the ‘foreign’ reduces. As for the theatre, it is being even forgotten, especially after the Bulgarian dramaturgy started its intentional development. The presence of the Foreigner in the various stages of Bulgarian theatre’s establishment is a topic of interest. Regardless of the initial resistance against foreign art, the foreigners connected to it are eagerly accepted as cultural ambassadors rather than aggressive imposers of cultural practices. A demonstration of this is the amateur or professional effort of numerous foreigners who connected their lives with Bulgaria for a while. A special role for the creation of the Bulgarian theatre holds Josef Meizner – recognized as a director of the first Bulgarian act in the town of Shumen. Such role holds also Adam Mandrović who shortly was a director of the Sofia theatre ‘Salza i smayh’ (Tear and Laughter), and Josef Šmaha – the first director of the National Theatre.

he article studies the artist's books of some of the most famous writers and painters of our time George Badin and Michel Butor.