Abstract
In and around 2005, even as the economic and political transition in post-communist Bulgaria stabilized its course, a cluster of productions of Shakespeare's "tempest-tossed" plays captured strong cultural anxieties regarding the construction of a reputable and convincing new national identity. The two productions analyzed, Petar Pashov's puppet theater Tempest (which premiered in October 2004 in Varna, Bulgaria) and Javor Gardev's international production of the play (which opened in November 2004 in Adana, Turkey), focus on the storm survivors' reckless re-definitions of identity as they face their past and their political ambitions for the future. The faint glimmer of hope in Pashov's surreal and self-referentially Bulgarian production is contrasted to the grim warning in Gardev's post-Brechtian rendition of the play regarding the dire need for forgiveness and recognition of the Other. Pashov portrays the native spirits of the island as constrained and craving social harmony with a naturalized and frankly incompetent Prospero. Gardev develops the revenge-tragedy potential of the play to show storm-makers and survivors headed for self-inflicted destruction.
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