Камен

It is unlikely that a significant artistic problem could be exhausted only by the development of the main conflict. In a dramatic work, as in life, a major event gives rise to a multitude of different incidents and conflicts, each of which, to one degree or another, depends on the central event. And indeed, the development of the action is significantly enriched if various additional conflicts are included in the central drama. But when some of the auxiliary dramas with their sub-themes overshadow, even for a short time, the main theme, then disharmony sets in in the play, because the principle of unity of action is violated. In the plays of the classics, each character, even a minor one, has his own drama, which is at the same time firmly connected with the main theme. The different moments of the development of the action, the many plot threads and the diverse dramatic characters in a true dramatic work are united by the single theme that the playwright wants to defend. According to Belinsky, unity of action should not be understood as a technological process at all, it means unity of ideological content: "Simplicity, uncomplicatedness and unity of action, in the sense of unity of ideological content, should be one of the main conditions of drama: in it everything should be directed towards one goal, towards one direction... The unification of all plot threads, clashes and vicissitudes by one main idea gives harmony and clarity to the composition - regardless of whether it is open or closed, whether it consists of many scenes and actions or only a few acts. And that is why often an insufficiently clarified dramatic theme is the cause of many compositional imperfections. Unity of ideological content leads to a harmonious and harmonious composition, where each individual part, in the lemina.

Today, no one seriously believes in astrology, this self-proclaimed sister of the exact sciences, before whose prophecies popes and monarchs once trembled. The works of the divine Nostradamus have long been only the subject of philological studies, and astrologers have become a greater rarity than both Egyptian priests and Egyptian fakirs. So it would hardly occur to anyone to look for "divine omens" in the coincidence of the twentieth anniversary of the socialist revolution in Bulgaria with the fiftieth anniversaries of some of our writers. And, of course, only in a metaphorical, and very approximate sense can the expression be used that "their horoscopes coincide", but it is precisely the deep regularity of this coincidence that gives us the right to resort to its help. And indeed. Now, as we enter a period of creative reckoning, of national celebrations and reports, the question naturally arises: what were the writers-anniversaries like before, what did they become after the people's victory over fascism and capitalism.

The dramaturgy of Kamen Zidarov is one of the major phenomena of our contemporary dramaturgy. For nearly two decades, his plays have not left the stages of Bulgarian theaters, arousing the interest of thousands of admirers of theatrical art, igniting the imagination, causing enthusiasm, educating. "Tsar's Mercy", "For the Honor of the Epaulette", "Ivan Shishman" - these are the stages of a rich creative work with a wide ideological and thematic scope. These are works that over time do not lose their relevance, the dust of oblivion does not fall on them, but on the contrary - theatergoers, spectators, and readers continue to put them on stage, watch and read. This is an unmistakable indication that the dramaturgy of Kamen Zidarov has withstood the tests of time - the truest criterion of artistic creativity, the highest award for the creator.

I wouldn't call Kamen Kalchev's new novel a "coup" in the writer's development, but it is undoubtedly a pleasant surprise. An author who has been visibly gaining momentum lately has reached a higher point of creative self-realization. It is hardly correct to say that he has surpassed himself. Rather, he has surpassed certain ideas of criticism about his creative possibilities. Because even in his most contemporary books in terms of subject matter, in his most noble responsiveness to the conflicts of the current day, Kalchev satisfied critical demands halfway, kept critical approvals at a very moderate level.

With "Two in the New Town" Kamen Kalchev enters the spiritual world of the ordinary person, reaches psychological generalizations, subordinated to a broad ideological concept. K. Kalchev proves that he is a writer with a wide range of creative interests, that he discovers something more in the thoughts and feelings of people of our time, presents the drama of the person from our society. His hero is placed in a contemporary setting, and this already determines his behavior, revealed in the aspect of social development. There is nothing tragic if the hero experiences his drama, the main thing is in the name of what he does this, what he is guided by. And Marin Maslarski is guided by humane feelings, by the thought of being useful, of being a person above all.