📅 ON THIS DAY IN BULGARIA, Sunday 20 September
Every country has a writer who explains its officialdom back to it, and in Bulgaria a good part of that job fell to Stanislav Stratiev. He died on this date in 2000, at fifty-nine, having spent twenty-five years as the resident playwright of a theatre whose entire purpose was taking the state apart on stage.
What happened on this day
He was born Stanko Stratiev Miladinov in Sofia in 1941, read Bulgarian philology at Sofia University, and went into newspapers. Four years at the youth paper, then seven at "Sturshel", the satirical weekly that occupied roughly the position Private Eye holds in Britain and had the additional distinction of doing it under a one-party state. From 1975 until his death he was dramaturg at the State Satirical Theatre in Sofia.
His first play, "The Roman Bath", opened in 1974 and ran for more than ten consecutive seasons to full houses, which is the kind of run that fixes a writer's name permanently. "The Suede Jacket" and "The Bus" followed. His plays have since been staged in more than twenty countries, from France and Germany to India, Morocco and Syria, and his prose has been translated into over thirty languages.
The prizes came from unexpected directions. "It's a Short Life" took first prize at the Maubeuge international theatre festival in 1990. His screenplay for "Balance" won a silver medal at the Moscow film festival in 1983, and "Childhood Sun" was honoured at MIFED in Milan the same year. "A Band With No Name", which he wrote for the director Lyudmil Kirkov, was voted the best Bulgarian film ever made by readers of the daily 24 Chasa in 2005.
Today's name day
Today is the name day for Evstati, a single and fairly rare one after the crowded run earlier in the month. The rule holds whatever the size of the day: if an Evstati invites you round, or simply expects you, do not turn up with empty hands.
Why this matters for British expats
There is a direct British connection, and it is a good one. In 1993 Stratiev's play "On the Other Side" was runner-up in the BBC World Service radio playwriting competition, and the BBC produced and broadcast it. A Bulgarian satirist of the socialist bureaucracy, on the World Service, two years after the system he had spent his career mocking finally collapsed.
The more useful point is what he wrote about. Stratiev's subject was the maddening, circular, deeply human absurdity of dealing with institutions, and anyone who has spent a morning at a Bulgarian counter discovering that the document they need requires a document they cannot get will recognise the territory. Our guide to Bulgarian bureaucratic etiquette is the practical version. Stratiev is the literary one, and he is funnier. If you would rather start with the film, A Band With No Name turns up regularly on television here and our television and entertainment guide covers where to look.
File alongside this in your expat mental map: the Bulgarian name-days guide.
Sources and further reading
The early years at Sturshel, the move to the Satirical Theatre and the full bibliography come from the Bulgarian Wikipedia entry on Stanislav Stratiev; the English entry carries the international staging record, the festival prizes and the BBC competition detail.