„Задушница” от а. Мицкевич на сцената на Народния театър, Cофия, 1937 г.

Bulgaria was the second country after Poland in which Miczkiewicz’s dramatic poem Dziady, an especially great challenge for staging, was presented in a theatre. This was in 1937 in the National Theatre in Sofia, under the direction of visiting theatrical director Leon Schiller. The production was a big success according to Bulgarian theatrical reviews of that time. It was estimated that indisputably the greatest merit was that of the theatrical production and stage direction, as well as actors’ performance. Andrzej Pronaszko’s scenography was defined as constructivist in style; critics pointed out that Schiller had achieved a perfect synthesis of stage sets, lighting, speech, music and dance, displaying excellent control in the mass scenes; the other greatest quality of the performance was the acting: the most prominent names of the National Theatre took part in this production. The patriotic and political themes were easily recognized and appreciated by the Bulgarian public, but the ecstatic and mystical elements of the drama created some difficulty for the audience. Despite these small, and inevitable, cultural disparities, the stage production of Dziady remains one of the most important theatrical events of the 1930s in Bulgaria. Through the medium of the theatre, this fundamental text of Polish literature and history came to life in a different national environment.