On 6 and 7 of October, the premiere of The Physics of Sorrow, based on the novel by Georgi Gospodinov and directed by Jernej Lorenci, took place on the Main Stage of the Ivan Vazov National Theater in Sofia, marking the remarkable fist ever stage encounter by two leading figures of the contemporary European cultural space.

Gospodinov’s novel has been translated into more than 20 languages and won many prestigious international awards - Jan Michalski Prize, the Premio Strega Europeo, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Award, the Gregor von Rezzori Prize, and was shortlisted for the PEN American Award for translated literature among others.

At the core of Physics of Sorrow lay the human beings, trapped within their own labyrinth of past and future, fears and hopes, loneliness and longing for closeness. The myth of the Minotaur intertwines with personal and collective memory, while individual human destinies form a shared narrative about generations, lost time and our ability to feel another person’s pain as our own.

Through deeply emotional and ritualistic theatrical language, Jernej Lorenci masterfully transforms this literary labyrinth into a living stage world of memories, stories, images, voices and bodies. Together with the actors, he searches for what connects us beyond our differences: our shared humanity and our common present, creating a piece about empathy as a form of resistance.

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^{Cover photo: Stephan Zdraveski}