Illusions

Author: Ivan Viripaev

Translation: Neva Micheva

Director: Neno Koynarski

Set Designer: Yasmin Mandelli

Composer: Dimitar Elenski

Cast: Anthony Penev, Boyan Petrov, Vanessa Peyankova, Jacqueline Daskalova

Producer: Artitude

"Illusions" by Ivan Viripaev is a tragicomic story about love, memory, and the human need to believe in our own versions of the truth.

Two couples, more than fifty years of shared life, memories, promises, confessions, and secrets. Four people who should know each other better than anyone else. But what does it really mean to know someone? And can we ever be completely sure that we know even ourselves?

In Viripaev's world, love is not as simple as it seems. What we take for truth may turn out to be self-deception. Betrayal can be loyalty. The same life can look completely different depending on the person telling the story.

In the darkly comedic interpretation by director Neno Koynarski, Vanessa Peyankova, Jacqueline Daskalova, Anthony Penev, and Boyan Petrov enter the stage — actors we will meet not in front of the camera, but this time on the theatrical stage.

"Illusions" does not ask whether love is real.

It asks something much more uncomfortable:

Does it matter if it's real, if we've believed in it our whole lives?

A performance by the theater company ARTITUDE.

Why did "Illusions" become an event in contemporary theater? The text by Ivan Viripaev was written in 2011 and quickly gained international life: the world premiere was on September 29, 2011, in Chemnitz, Germany, and just a month later, the author made a Moscow stage version at "Practica," included in the NET festival program. The form is deliberately "narrative" – four performers directly address the audience and alternate monologues, so the action takes place in our imaginations, not in the scenery.

The play follows the stories of two old couples, known in the text as Sandra, Deni, Albert, and Margaret. Each "testimony" displaces the previous one and questions our perception of truth, guilt, and gratitude. One confession sounds like an ending, while the next unravels it – with a sense of humor and quiet cruelty. This very structure is why "Illusions" is staged by theaters in Germany, Russia, and Poland and remains relevant for over a decade: it is not the plot that leads, but the ability of words to change perspective.

What to expect from the ARTITUDE premiere? The new reading relies on the power of actor storytelling – without excessive gestures and without disguise. A director with experience both on stage and in front of the camera chooses a precise tempo-rhythm and visible trust in the text. In such a framework, every pause is important, and detail – a line, a date, a small request – can turn an entire biography. This is what makes the encounter of the four performers with the audience tense and alive: simple words are spoken, but moral dilemmas simmer beneath the surface.

For the curious facts

• The official German premiere is at Städtische Theater Chemnitz; critics at the time highlighted the minimalism and "auditory" nature of the performance.
• Viripaev's Moscow version is often performed with house lights on and a central "lectern" – a gesture that removes the illusion of "embodiment" and places the words at the center.
• Bulgarian stages are familiar with the play: as early as the previous decade, it entered the repertoire and later returned in updated versions – an indicator that its themes resonate strongly with us.

If the theme of partnership under a magnifying glass resonates with you, check out Desperate Husbands. If you enjoy a powerful first-person narrative – compare approaches with the stage novel in Chamkoria. For more intimate stories about love and choices, see I, Who Loves You or the Saturday-Sunday tenderness of Sunday Morning. And if you are interested in the meetings between personal memory and stage imagination, pay attention to A Place Called Elsewhere and the palette of genres in The Ballerina Who Set the Operetta on Fire.