Bulgarian production in Rome marks Dario Fo centenary

Ahead of Bulgaria’s 24 May celebration of the Cyrillic script and national culture, a new Bulgarian solo performance will premiere in Rome. Actress Silviya Stanoeva stars in La Voce del Coraggio, adapted from a monologue in Fedayn by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo and Franca Rame. Directed by Momchil Alexiev, the production opens on 23 May at the Teatro Argot Studio in Rome's Trastevere district, Veneta Nenkova, head of the Parallel 43 cultural association in Rome, told Radio Bulgaria.

The play is about an Arab woman who consciously joins a struggle that seems doomed from the very beginning. By choosing to fight, she takes on personal risks and accepts full responsibility for her actions, while also regaining control over her life and identity.

Dario Fo wrote the monologue with his wife, the actress and playwright Franca Rame. Rooted in the Palestinian resistance movement of the 1970s, the text draws in part on the recorded testimony of a Bedouin woman. More than 50 years later, it still feels strikingly relevant.

For Silviya Stanoeva and Momchil Alexiev, this production attempts to convey a deeply human and politically charged narrative to contemporary audiences through theatre.

Created in collaboration with the Fo-Rame Foundation, the project forms part of this year's centenary celebrations in honour of Dario Fo's birth. The production also pays tribute to one of the most important figures in politically engaged Italian theatre.

Stanoeva, who has lived in Rome since 2022, is no stranger to the theme of women in wartime. She previously presented Diary from the War, a solo performance she wrote and performed about a Bulgarian-French woman who took part in the French Resistance during World War II, at the same venue, Argot Studio.

• Silviya Stanoeva presents her Diary of the War in Rome

Alexiev studied scenography at Sapienza University in Rome and film directing at the Netherlands Film Academy. He works across theatre, film, and immersive media and is the founder of Bulgaria’s VR Lab BG, as well as being a Sundance Institute Fellow.

This production is being staged in partnership with the Parallel 43 Cultural Association and the Asen and Iliya Peykov Bulgarian School in Rome.

Editing by Elena Karkalanova