John Malkovich will work with actors from the National Theatre in Sofia

The world-famous American actor, director and producer John Malkovich is coming to Bulgaria in preparation for his future production of Bernard Shaw's “Arms and the Man”, which will be performed on the stage of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia during the 2024/2025 theater season.

This was agreed in a series of talks between Malkovich and the director of the National Theatre, Vasil Vassilev, the cultural institution said on July 25.

This is the first of several upcoming joint projects between the director and the theatre. Preliminary meetings with the National Theatre company will take place during the new 2023/2024 theatre season, and rehearsals will begin in September 2024.

Bernard Shaw's comedy “Arms and the Man” takes place in Bulgaria and most of the characters are Bulgarian..Based on the Battle of Slivnitsa during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885, “Arms and the Man” was first staged in London in April 1894.

At the beginning of the year, John Malkovich appeared on the stage of the National Theatre together with one of the most popular Lithuanian actresses, Ingeborga Dapkunaite in the performance "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" by Bernard-Marie Koltes, directed by Timofey Kulyabin.

John Malkovich was born in 1953. In 1976, he became one of the founders of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. In 1983 he moved to New York, and a year later he was on Broadway with Dustin Hoffman. He made his film debut with “A Place in the Heart “(1984), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. “The Dancer Upstairs” (2002) was John Malkovich's debut as a director,.

He has won an Emmy Award and has been nominated for the prestigious Satellite, Bafta, Saturn, Academy and Golden Globe Awards.

John Malkovich is in Sofia to perform at the national theatre