Social Structure Inc.

The play is based on the notes of Krastio Radanov (Kris Radanov’s father, who was imprisoned without a serious cause for ten years, 1974-1984) as well as on testimonies by survivors from the Bulgarian concentration camps in Persin at Belene and Slanchev Briag at Lovec.

The play negotiates the human fate in the totalitarian regime of the former People’s Republic of Bulgaria. In the first part, the hero constructs a machine that symbolises Communism and the heavy industry of Eastern Bloc.

The first scenes depict the everyday life and the simple mistakes that an ordinary person makes against the people with power. This man is unaware of the transformation of the “Dictatorship of Proletariat” into a “Dictatorship on Proletariat”.

In the second part the machine works as a torture machine and as a prison’s cell right after that – we observe the hero being interrogated and then imprisoned because he is considered an “Enemy of the People”.

The third part places the hero in a hospital. He has chosen to be there in order to escape from the concentration camps’ tortures. There he is a volunteer for medical experiments that the communists make with the aim to create the Superman.

In the last part the hero is left disabled due to these experiments. We watch him playing chess with God. He has made a bet with God to take him if he wins. In the end, he does so.