29 – 30 APRIL, 2023

The meeting is organized by the Drama Theatre “Sava Ognyanov” – Ruse in cooperation with the International Elias Canetti Society, the Arche Theatre and the “Yura Zeufer Gesellschaft”.

With the kind support of the Austrian Embassy in Sofia

The meeting focuses on the life and work of the Austrian playwright Yura Zeufer. They will be presented by theatre and literature specialists from Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Norway, Argentina, Egypt and Turkey.

Who is Yura Seufer? “His short life path unfolds between two dictatorships, between two attempts to escape from these dictatorships and in search of a homeland that he could find nowhere except in his work. “This is how one of the researchers of his life and work, prof. Penka Angelova. He was born into a wealthy Jewish family on 8.12.1912 in Kharkov, Ukraine. After the invasion of the Red Army in 1920, the family left the country. Hoping it was for a short time, he tried to settle in Georgia. When they found out that the invaders were heading to that country as well, through Constantinople and Baden, the Seifer family managed to settle in Vienna. Here began Jura’s short career as a young poet. He wrote more than a hundred poems, also produced prose, and four of his five plays were translated into Bulgarian. A fragment of the novel “Thus Perished a Party” has also been preserved, since during the arrests and persecutions the three copies that Jura Zoefer left with friends were only partially preserved. He was arrested in 1936. Through the Vienna District Prison, Innsbruck and Dachau, he ended up in Buchenwald. There he died after a serious illness on 16.02. 1939 before he turned 27. Days later, a release document arrived, obtained by his parents, who managed to escape to America.

It took place in the 1997-1998 season, when the Drama Theatre Sava Ognyanov Theatre staged Vineta – The Sunken City. The translation from German is by prof. Penka Angelova, the stage editing of the performance was done by Krum Gergitsov. Profs. Penka Angelova and prof. Anna Dimova open for Bulgarian literary and theatre specialists the plays of Yura Seehofer by translating them and collecting them in the collection “From Heaven to the End of the World”.

The packed programme of the “Rousse Discourses” during the two days will give a lot of information from Yura Seehofer researchers, but it will also be a place for creating lasting contacts between theatre professionals from different countries, as well as an opportunity for partnerships in future international projects.

Admission to all events in the programme is free.