JOIN THE REVOLUTION WITH THE YALE SCHOOL OF DRAMA

 Fantasy and reality battle for supremacy in the Yale School of Drama’s ambitious and intense staging of “Bulgaria! Revolt!,” an original work created by Elizabeth Dinkova and Miranda Rose Hall raising pitch forks at the Iseman Theater in New Haven until Thursday, December 15.

 Grab your scythe and sickle and join the revolution.  The people of Bulgaria are in turmoil and more than ready to throw off the shackles that bind them.  They are oppressed and underfed, caught in a yoke of slavery, tragically mistreated and abused.  A poet Geo has courageously penned a poem to inspire them to rise up and act, to “butcher the butcher,” a determined to win Dylan Frederick. who is making their lives unbearable.  
 
 Now Geo, a conflicted Leland Fowler, is under arrest and about to be put on trial for his treasonous acts.  His wife Mila, a persuasive Juliana Canfield, wants him to stay and fight, but Geo’s instincts tell him to flee the country for France or America and live to fight another day.  Enter the Devil, a conniving Elizabeth Stahlmann who has her own agenda.  She wants to win Geo’s soul and will use any underhanded means to accomplish the deed.

Geo wrote to give a voice to the voiceless, to speak for the peasant, and to be a symbol for a country he no longer believes in.  When the Devil offers him a ticket (a BIG ticket) to America he is ready to abandon his revolutionary ways.  We see the revolt by the disenfranchised aided by a series of visuals overhead.  We also see Geo’s fate in Chicago at the Famous Frank’s factory (you may never eat another hotdog again). The action is suspenseful and difficult to witness, as history keeps repeating this struggle for freedom.

Did I fail to mention this is a musical?  There is a rousing seven piece band playing music written by Michael Costagliola.  Others in the talented cast include Ben Anderson, Sebastian Arboleda, Marie Botha, Anna Crivelli, Jonathan Higginbotham, Courtney Jamison, Stephanie Machado and Patrick Madden.  Elizabeth Dinkova directs this stirring piece of dramatic theater with intensity and style.

For tickets ($ 15-25), call 203-432-1234 or online at drama.yale.edu. or at the box office at the Yale Rep or at the theater the night of  the show  at the Iseman Theater,  1156  Chapel Street, New Haven.  Performances are Monday to Thursday at 8 p.m. This original work was inspired by a real poet Geo Milev and a real poem "September."

Come discover how a poem, a debt of potatoes, a ring, a duck, a hotdog, a knife, a ticket and a soul figure prominently in this tale of revolution and the fight for ideals worth dying to achieve.