SOFIA, Nov 12 — A 19th-century play directed by US actor John Malkovich has enraged nationalists in Bulgaria who call it an insult to the country — a claim the Hollywood star rejected as stirred up by the far right.

Last week’s premiere of "Arms and the Man” by renowned Irish-born playwright George Bernard Shaw sparked raucous protests by nationalist groups.

Holding up banners that read "Malkovich go home”, protesters blocked access to the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in the capital Sofia on Thursday before attempting to storm it, accusing the 70-year-old director of ridiculing the country’s history and its citizens.

"This play is a disgrace and must be banned. It makes a mockery of our ancestors who perished for Bulgaria,” shouted 21-year-old student Yoana Ilieva, part of an infuriated crowd.

After the play premiered in an almost empty theatre, Malkovich expressed his astonishment over how his production was received.

"It’s a quite odd reaction, but it is a strange time in the world—more and more people love to censor things they don’t agree with,” he said at a press conference alongside several actors on stage.

Brandishing Bulgarian flags, a mob of angry protesters verbally and physically assaulted the director of the theatre and the former culture minister among others.

The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the clashes.

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The play is a humorous take on the Serbo-Bulgarian conflict in the late 19th century, exploring the absurdity of war while exposing the flaws of heroic adulation and militarism.

It is a "charming, light, kind of anti-war” comedy that Malkovich had already staged on Broadway in 1985, he told AFP in an interview.

He said he considered that seeking historical accuracy in a play was "frighteningly naive”.

Malkovich said he was "pretty sure I’ve never insulted any of the 47 countries” he has worked in, adding that such an accusation "could only be posited by people who don’t know me at all”.

"I think it’s not about the play at all. And I’m not even sure it’s about me, really,” he said.

According to Malkovich, Shaw "knew nothing about Bulgaria”, saying the playwright "just wanted a place to set the war”.

He said he believed far-right protesters were trying to grab people’s "attention for the things they want”.

Obstructing freedom of expression

Bulgaria, the EU’s poorest nation, has been plagued by political turmoil since 2021, which has favoured the country’s far right amid a surge in pro-Russian disinformation campaigns, according to NGOs in the country.

For the pro-Russian, ultra-nationalist Vazrazhdane party, the third-largest force in parliament, "not only is the play mediocre” but the production also had "totally inadequate staging”.

Bulgaria’s conservative writers’ union SBP said "such works” had no place in Bulgaria, criticising what it perceived as the "mockery of the thousands of soldiers who fell at the front for the freedom and reunification of the country”.

The play had already been staged twice by Bulgarian director Nikolay Polyakov in 1995 and 2000, without sparking large public outrage.

"The current climate is much more tense, with passions running high and hatred fanned against everything Western and American,” Polyakov told AFP.

Nikolay Hristov, a 66-year-old architect who saw the comedy with his wife on Friday, said there was "nothing anti-Bulgarian” about the "fun” play, adding it was "more about love, lies and misunderstood honour”.

The European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA) condemned "the outright obstruction of the freedom of artistic expression” by "far-right activists, on the pretext that it mocked Bulgarian national pride”.

"The rise of hatred and aggression in Europe is a direct provocation to essential human rights,” it said. — AFP