Theatre Laboratory Sfumato, founded in 1989 by Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev, has for decades held a distinctive place in Bulgarian theatre with its laboratory approach, its focus on major literary worlds, and its persistent search for a theatrical language capable of reaching the essential questions of human existence.

In The Fellowman’s face, Margarita Mladenova returns to the world of Dostoevsky and to the moral trials that permeate his work compassion and pride, love and humiliation, faith and the void of the abyss. The performance is part of the programme Chasing the Demons one of Sfumato’s characteristic long-term creative lines, dedicated to an in-depth scenic and spiritual exploration of a single author’s world. The title itself brings to the forefront one of the most difficult moral questions in Dostoevsky’s universe: not abstract love for humanity, but the encounter with the Other the fellowman, the vulnerable, the unbearable, the suffering human being. It is precisely within this impossible closeness between people that the performance seeks the measure of the humane.

IKAR 2026 Award  of the Union of Bulgarian actors, in the Debut category (Paola Maraviglia)

Askeer 2026 Theatre Award nomination in the Rising Star category (Paola Maraviglia)