Is it Feasible?

Projections show bucolic scenes of Bulgaria juxtaposed with those of urban monumental buildings, mostly of the capital, Sofia. On stage, the contrasts of kinds of life in the 1960s under Communism will be even greater. In Is it Feasible?, Zlatomir Moldovanski takes us back to that time.

We (the audience) represent people who’ve completed an arduous path to settling in Sofia. He plays a bureaucrat congratulating us for winning approval. But when he’s convinced he’s not being snooped on, his message changes. Not “affluence is just around the corner” but rather, he says, “Run away!” His happiness as a newcomer in Sofia lasted but a week, but since....he’s become his wife’s errand boy, picking up stuff and people.

What a disaster at the train station! A hippo of an aunt and her baggage he had -- without a taxi -- to carry, as he shows, all the way to the bridge. There he left her like a statue: guess why? We won’t call his homecoming a reception, for sure.

We feel like we’ve been to dinner with him at the dull Doctor’s house -- after all, it was for baked turkey! And who was the guest? a Feasible sub for Doctor when the hospital called him to deal with a trauma. What a smooth character, Mr. Feasible! And somehow the pharmacist got involved and the Doctor’s wife too, but differently.

The narrator’s “not sure why” but “he was responsible” as a marriage broke up. What fun Bulgarian music as he navigates every part of the stage with a dance. And speaking of drinks, he’s sure someone among us has snuck in some of that quince or plum moonshine from a wonderful village garden. He comes down among us -- and finds guy and bottle. Both must accompany him -- Boris, the guy’s name must be -- to the table onstage. “A Bulgarian needs someone to drink with” and Boris can be interviewed too. Song, drink, dance, drink, pictures of the best of Bulgaria, drink!

Because he likes Boris, he sends his dream of Sofia “straight to hell.” He tells of his uncle dying, recovering, dying finally, all in short order, and the deals he had to make with corrupt hospital personnel and ungodly funeral vendors and the shortcomings of his uncle’s casket and disposal. He could weep like the woman at the cemetery, but he has to pick up his aunt. As for us, his message concerns the sweet countryside: we should go home!

So we've left, having laughed much and applauded much at the end appreciating the skillful, very long, heartfelt narration by Moldovanski. Oh, and we had to make our appreciation Feasible also to his director, Benjamin Williamson, who did a lot with a little tech help as well as blocking and being in tune with a Bulgarian sensibility.