ARTS-BULGARIA: Suicide Rate is Dramatic

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Boris Basmadjiev

SOFIA, Feb 20 1996 (IPS) - Early in the new year, Naum Shopov, one of Bulgaria’s leading theatrical actors, went behind the stage of the National Theatre here and cut his veins.

The shocked reaction to this off-stage drama was due as much to Shopov’s fame as the fact that it seemed to confirm a pattern: more and more Bulgarian actors are killing themselves.

In some provincial theatres, at least one actor has committed suicide every year since the turn of the decade – a bizarre phenomenon linked to the hard times which have befallen professional artists in post-communist Bulgaria.

Being less illustrious names, some of the earlier suicide cases have not attracted the same level of attention as Shopov. The impact of these deaths on the artistic community has been no less devastating.

In fact, actors in post-communist Bulgaria are regarded as suicide-prone. Starkly reduced financial support from the state, coupled with dwindling audiences, are said to be the main reasons for the sense of disillusion among performers.

Up to the late 1980s, when Bulgaria was still under communist rule, actors, artists and others in the so-called “creative” professions, were pampered and highly respected by the authorities. High salaries, comfortable living quarters and heavily subsidised shows were their’s. All they needed to do was conform.

That’s now past tense. Subsidies for culture were cut after the overthrow of the communist regime. Financial crises became part of the reality of the artistic community.

Subsidies are still provided. But the amounts are heavily unbalanced. For example, the 1996 budget envisages 6.6 million U.S. dollars (400 million leva) in support for Bulgaria’s theatre sector. But 80 percent of this sum is slated for salaries and other administrative expenses, leaving the rest to cover promotions.

At the same time, tickets for the theatre cost an average of 2- 3 dollars. A night at the theatre is an unaffordable luxury for many Bulgarians. Monthly salaries are 80 dollars, the average pension around 35 dollars.

As if to add insult to injury, for most ordinary theatre goers the problem is exacerbated by the fear of thugs and street crime in general when returning home after a show.

Few actors can survive on the income derived from their once respected profession. To make ends meet, many have turned to other professions. Ex-actors have become longshoremen, taxi-drivers and meat-importers, store-owners and restaurant managers. Especially in the provinces, many have become street vendors.

“It’s very hard for an actor to go on stage and see less than 30 viewers in a hall with a thousand places,” actor Georgy Mamalev recently told a newspaper.