Vasil Stefanov

Each play represents a self-contained whole, an autonomous mechanism that draws energy for its movement from forces embedded within itself. This is a kind of "self-moving" mechanism. Here, the author is deprived of the usual function of a reproducer of the action, the role of an intermediary in tracking events and describing images. Direct authorial intervention is completely absent. In the play, the images immediately live their own independent life, "realize" themselves before our eyes without anyone's external help, through the momentary manifestation of their essence in words, actions and behavior. They "self-portray themselves". And the only means they have at their disposal to accomplish this is action. They act in order to reveal themselves, and by revealing themselves, they act.

After reading "Dramatic and Dramaturgical", one cannot help but think that the title that Atanas Natev chose for his book actually suggests quite approximately its actual content. And the fault for this lies not in the title, but in the content itself, the richness and diversity of which simply do not lend themselves to a somewhat precise and exhaustive formulation in a few words. The concepts of "dramatic" and "dramatic" prepare us to expect that we will be transported into the sphere of "pure" theory with its problems that assume specific scientific interest, and such an expectation will not remain unfulfilled, but despite its strongly theoretical character, the exposition in the book does not remain with abstract general considerations, but also touches on current issues of living dramaturgical practice, the illumination of which turns Natev's temperamental pen into a fascinating read even for the reader who is inexperienced in theory. Natev's attention, focused primarily on the development of some basic problems of drama theory, which focus on the problem of the "dramatic", also extends to the specific analysis of a number of famous works by foreign and domestic playwrights, and this gives the book a scope and diversity significantly greater than those implied by the short title.