SFUMATO is a laboratory-theatre founded in 1989. The shape and artistic direction of the Theatre performances is set by two artists – Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev.
The Theatre is heavily inspired by the experience of culture of the Balkans in its authentic form. Organising expeditions to Greece, Serbia and Romania is connected with a search for traces of old shepherds’ culture. This culture – in spite of a lack of written sources and the lands divided by borders – still remains unchanged, always faithful to its beliefs and true to its ceremonies and rituals.
SFUMATO – paraphrasing Peter Brook’s though – discards the forms of the conventional theatre which – using certain stereotypes – offer a ready play to the audience, however, is never a final outcome but a continuous process of creation. Hence the creators of this theatre oppose setting the artistic truths. They trust their senses, the memory of the bodies, they want to resurrect the poet in every viewer. Their art goes back to the sources of theatre and is an attempt to renew the spiritual ritual which gives a chance to travel inside one’s feeling and to achieve primary emotions.