Kris Sharkov

Country: Bulgaria

Biography

Kris Sharkov is a Bulgarian director. He has created productions at the stages of many theatres in the country, also has made several independent projects.

His works is characterised with strong contemporary issues and neo-realistic cinematic language. He has created five contemporary interpretations of plays by Henrik Ibsen. Among his more recent works are: The Maids by Jean Genet, An Enemy Of The People by Henrik Ibsen, Tartuffe after Don Juan Comes Back From The War by Duncan Macmilan after Ödön von Horváth, Unbearably Long Embraces by Ivan Vyrypaev, Pieces Of A Woman by Kata Weber, Lulu by Frank Wedekind, Strindberg Gallery after August Strindberg, Demons by Lars Noren, Serotonin after the novel by Michel Houellebecq, and Scenes From A Marriage by Ingmar Bergman.

He was nominated for the “ASKEER” award for best directing in 2025 and 2023 and has six nominations for the national award of the Union of Bulgarian Artists “ICARUS” in the categories for best directing, best performance, and for a debut in 2012. He shares the Plovdiv 2018 award for achievements in the field of culture. In 2016 he was part of the International forum of Berlin Theatertreffen.

He’s finishing a Ph.D. work about the methods of directing and acting at the beginning of 21st century. He’s also teaching a directing class in National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia.

The Elementary Particles

Adapted from Les Particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq

Director: Kris Sharkov

Translation: Krasimir Petrov

Dramatisation And Directing: Kris Sharkov

Scenography And Costumes: Nikola Toromanov

Music: Emiliyan Gatsov-Elbi

Multimedia: Ralitsa Georgieva

Dramaturg Of The Production: Mayia Pramatarova

Cast: Teodora Duhovnikova Zhaklin Daskalova Dimitar Nikolov Martin Dimitrov Elena Ivanova Slavena Zaikova Darina Radeva

Assistant-Director: Irina Ivanova

Poster Design: Nikolai Dimitrov NAD

Photographer: Alexander Bogdan Thompson

Synopsis:

All synonyms of the word challenging are fitting for Michel Houellebecq’s The Elementary Particles. The novel, which made him renowned worldwide, reveals the problems of modern European society in a provocative, bold, arrogant, and even offensive manner. It speaks, through the engaging stories of two brothers – a teacher and a successful biologist, of love in a time of hyper technology. Questions are posed with brazen audacity but with an idealised view of the future of humanity.

Translating a novel of such importance for the understanding of our changing times to the stage is a challenge. The team’s approach is ironic and paradoxically lyrical, fitting for Houellebecq’s understanding. Doomed to live, man is quick to cut his ties to the past and is yet to learn how to recognize the sounds of the future.

The production is a social anti-utopia that poses the question of whether man can preserve his ability to love in a dehumanising world. The answer is being sought by travelling backwards and forwards through time. Our guides are the director (author of the stage adaptation) and the actors, for whom Houellebecq is an important guide in making sense of this new paradigm.

The production The Elementary Particles is part of the Theatre+ Programme of Ivan Vazov National Theatre.

Theatre+ is a platform for long-term and collaborative creative work to exchange ideas and present new dramaturgical and stage trends in contemporary theatre