by Alexei Slapovsky
Stefan Spasov
Vasilka Bumbarova
Vanina Tsandeva
Teodosii Spasov
Vyara Tabakova, Gergana Zmiycharova / Iliana Kodzhabasheva, Lyubomir Neykov, Antonia Kundakova
A confirmed bachelor browses matrimonial ads because twelve years ago he promised his mother he would get married. Suddenly, he comes across something highly intriguing:
"Young, beautiful, wealthy and financially secure woman seeks an ugly and poor man in order to make him happy."
And so, He decides to meet Her — perhaps because, as he believes, his chances of success are very small. It becomes clear that someone has advised the beauty, who until then had lived solely for her own pleasure, to perform at least one good deed for another person — to make him happy.
Thus begins the story of the transformation of a man who has remained in the rear of love’s battlefield into a victor. The beauty falls in love with a monster, and instead of turning into a prince, he becomes a true monster — arrogant, picky, and demanding. Because happiness, as the hero (and the audience) come to realize, is a great trial for a weak person.
The play “The Different One” is defined by its author, Alexei Slapovsky, as a “comitragedy” — a genre both contemporary and challenging. What in this story is truth, and what is fiction? Which of the characters is genuine, and who is different? And is the Different One truly different?
Playwright Alexei Slapovsky places the following at the forefront of his twelve commandments:
Love not the theatre that already exists, but the theatre that is yet to come.
Treat playwriting as literature.
He also advises that contemporary drama should follow the “three plus two” structure: three actresses and two actors. The characters should not change their age, and may grow older by no more than ten years.
Dr. Svetlana Pancheva
Elena Todorova, Reneta Ikonomova
Petko Mavrodiev
Premiere: 12 and 13 March 2026
