Following a run at VAULT in 2020 and their developed staging of The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we caught up with co-writers Sasha Wilson and Joseph Cullen as their highly acclaimed play transfers to London’s Arcola Theatre!
Now’s your chance folks – tell us about The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria and the journey it’s been on ahead of your upcoming run at Arcola Theatre, 26th September – 21st October…
We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve received since we started on this journey back in 2019, when we only had a title, 200 words of copy and a belief that this Bulgarian story had an audience. Four years later we are about to transfer to The Arcola Theatre from 26th September – 21st October!
80 years ago, when so many countries across the continent appeased the policies of Nazi Germany, Bulgaria – despite being Allied with Hitler – said ‘no’, and managed to rescue nearly 50,000 Jewish citizens from deportation and death. Through the story of Boris III, we shine a light on other figures from history, such as Metropolitan Stefan (Head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church) and Liliana Panitza (secretary in the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs), and some of the ‘extraordinary ordinary’ people, as described in Michael Bar-Zohar’s Beyond Hitler’s Grasp, which was our main source of research.
The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria, photo by Will Alder
We first staged the show in 2020 at VAULT Festival, and we were delighted / terrified in equal measure that HRH Prince Kyril of Bulgaria (Boris III’s grandson) was in attendance. What we’d written wasn’t a hagiography of a King, but instead a thorny piece of history that speaks to politics and current affairs today. Luckily, Kyril said, Whether a jazz fan, a history buff or just someone who loves gripping real-life stories, this is a must see. We have been very fortunate to have his continued support.
After some R&D (with support from Arts Council England), we were invited to perform at The Pleasance Theatre at Edinburgh Fringe 2023. Nearly 4,000 people over 26 performances attended. It was remarkable the number of Bulgarian and Jewish audience members who approached us after the show, asking questions about the history or sharing with us their own personal family connections to the story. Among them – International Booker Prize Winners Giorgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel, author and translator of ‘Time Shelter.’
This play was inspired by co-writer Sasha Wilson’s Bulgarian grandparents, who had Crown of Thorns (a biography of Boris III), on their bookshelf. When we read the dust jacket, we couldn’t believe our eyes. As history nerds, we were shocked that we’d heard of Oskar Shindler, of the Kindertransport, but not of this incredible rescue of 50,000 Jewish Bulgarians. We always said we wouldn’t do a WWII show unless we had something really interesting to say… so of course this story piqued our interest. Sasha grew up speaking Bulgarian and here was a real chance to connect with her Bulgarian heritage.
During this process we’ve met wonderful Bulgarian creatives, including our production assistant Lorra Videv and videographer Aydan Wilder. We worked with Dessi Stefanova (London Bulgarian Choir), who taught us the Bulgarian National Anthem ‘Mila Rodino’ and traditional folk song ‘Kaval Sviri.’ Our Jewish dramaturg / director, Hannah Hauer-King, offered the songs ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ and ‘’Shalom Aleichem’, and our newly announced Associate Artist David Leopold has been (excuse the pun) instrumental in shaping the musical language of the piece.
We’ve had the privilege of working closely with The Bulgarian Embassy and Ambassador Raykov, and co-writer Joe attended a conference at The European Parliament in 2023 on ‘the 80th Anniversary of Bulgaria’s Heroic Rescue of its Jewish Population in 1943.’ It was crucial for us that we tackle with great care and sensitivity the entirety of this complicated story. 11,343 Jewish people from Thrace and Macedonia were sent to Treblinka. This truth has to be acknowledged alongside the rescue attempt that saved nearly 50,000 lives. At The European Parliament, Joe spoke to delegates from Thrace and Macedonia, who shared their perspective on the events.
Joe even met Simeon II (Boris III’s son) and told him the story of how when Simeon was born, Sasha’s Opapa was failing school. In celebration of Simeon’s birth, Boris III awarded extra marks to all students in the country – including Sasha’s Opapa, who subsequently passed his exams, survived the war and went on to work at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland). 85 years later, we sent him a signed copy of Simeon’s biography in the post.
People often ask, if you could go back in time and change one thing in history, what would you change? But we don’t often think about how our choices will echo into the future. It got us thinking about how entangled our stories can be. Opapa passed away last October just days shy of his 101st birthday. The anniversary will fall on the Monday after we close at the Arcola. The 80th anniversary of Boris III’s death – August 28th – was also our final performance and the closing night of the Fringe Festival. It feels like kismet and a reminder of why we decided to embark upon this adventure. Everyone shapes history – kings and ‘extraordinary ordinary people’ alike.
The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria, photo by Will Alder
