The great Bulgarian actress Stoyanka Mutafova turned 93 on February 2. After more than half a century on stage and countless memorable roles on the small and big screen, her name continues to bring happy smiles to everyone who touches even for a moment her immense talent.
She once again shared her holiday with those who continue to give her their unreserved love - the viewers. Her biggest fans managed to get a ticket and had the pleasure of seeing her on the stage of the Satirical Theater - this year in the performance "Grasshoppers" from St. L. Kostov.
A year ago, Stoyanka Mutafova shared that she feels very good because she is still working, still on stage. "If I don't work - I don't feel good.
I travel and play to full houses. I haven't been rejected yet, despite my age. I never thought that I could perform on stage at this age," said the great Bulgarian actress.
“And may your readers be alive and well. To work what they like, what they were born to do, to give them pleasure. May all their wishes come true", wished the favorite of generations of Bulgarians to the readers of MyClinic.
How does she feel at 93, are there "locusts" in our country and where are they - here is Stoyanka Mutafova's confession.
Mrs. Mutafova, the MyClinic team congratulates you on your 93rd anniversary - always be brave in your dreams, strong as a person and an actress, cheerful and smiling, he althy and happy with the people who love you. How do you feel after the long applause on the stage of the Satirical Theater?
- Thank you for your wishes! I'm a little tired, I didn't manage to sleep, rest, but I'll manage, I won't give up. I have a lot of flowers, they brought them to me with a truck, a neighbor helped me arrange them. I thought I was in a graveyard… A bit of dark humor… (Laughs!)
Your sense of humor never leaves you…
- I am touched by people's gesture to honor my birthday, but I don't want to see them fade away. I even thought that I would leave a basket on the doorstep of all my neighbors - let them be happy too! I am a cheerful person, so I will leave. I have three more shows in one week - in Kazanlak and Sliven, so I will postpone the rest until after that.
How is your he alth?
- My daughter has taken some nutritional supplements - both for the blood, and for fatigue, and for the eyes. Not that I'm bad, but at this age I have to take care of myself. I don't think about diseases at all - what is written for me will happen. Why burden my psyche with bad thoughts?!
Do you still want to go to Egypt?
- Oh, yes, I feel like traveling, but if possible somehow without feeling it. I might even find time - I've always wanted to see the pyramids.
93 - can you feel them?
- I don't feel them, I'm almost like a child. I never thought I would reach these years. I didn't feel them when they piled up and
I still don't feel old
They say - old age, I feel it, of course, some ailments call, but it is the same with young people. Who doesn't have a headache, who doesn't have leg pain, who doesn't complain about something?! I can't complain - I'm alive, I'm he althy, my daughter Muki is looking after me and my well-being in these elderly years… (Laughs!)
My role in "Grasshoppers" is small, it seems to me that I should not have appeared on stage with this on my birthday. But that's how it happened, that's the program. I will remember my birthday with the audience the most. To be honest, I was a little embarrassed, but I managed to do something out of nothing. I was able to bring my three lines to life.
Who are the “locusts” nowadays?
- "Grasshoppers" as much as you want, but no names, please… Cheeky, they attack you on the street, they give you some compliments, but too fake - this is the least unpleasant. More unpleasant are those that prevent you from working, from living fully. Once upon a time, at school, not knowing the history lesson, we said - lo and behold, locusts appeared. (Laughs…) And now that I think about it, I laugh a lot at our stupidity… Our life cannot go without “locusts”!
Do you sense fakeness in people? Is this the only thing that changed in Bulgarian?
- Oh yes, right away, I recognize it without fail, that's why I don't like to be around a lot of people. Greedy have become a certain type of Bulgarians, they fill their pockets at the expense of the poor.
There are people who have nothing to eat,
but nobody cares, that's callous. You know that I have a small house in Dragalevtsi for the summer. Around me they built some huge palaces, they are locked with big padlocks, cameras, guards - they are ridiculous and too pitiful. Their fences are higher than the houses - who are they guarding against, do I know…
Few people know that you first graduated in classical philology…
- Our language is already very polluted - the Bulgarian speaks as he chooses. There's no one to fix it even on stage. There is no one to monitor our speech there. We make excuses that our language is difficult, but I speak correctly since I was a child. That's what my father and mother taught me.
Could you share what your father, mother were like?
- Mother was a very educated woman, my father - even more so. He had an uncanny sense of the real thing. He got sick early, stopped writing. And his plays were performed, they were good and interesting. We noticed that he suddenly stopped writing. And I asked him - dad used to write very good articles in "Misl", the most intelligent publication at the time. My father spoke all European languages and Arabic.
He had made a magnificent Bulgarian-Turkish dictionary, locked it in an iron safe during the evacuation. When we returned, we found it all charred - such a huge amount of work gone to waste.
Mom played very well
She graduated in history in Bulgaria, but went to Paris and graduated in classical music at the Sorbonne. He comes back here, he has an idea to devote himself to music, but he meets my father, gives birth to two children and stops playing. Otherwise, I have one grand piano and one piano left from them - I remember how they both played together… I can't get rid of the family furniture, the pictures - they are memories. Various upstarts, foreigners come, they want to buy something from me - but I don't sell anything.
What made your father sick?
- In the 1930s, I got a brain tumor. The Ministry of Education even granted him a very large sum to undergo surgery in Vienna. I was supposed to accompany him, but he refused to go. He said he had no intention of leaving his bones abroad. And I, jokingly, promised him that I would not leave them there, that I would carry them. I laugh at the joke now, Dad knew humor. He was not angry at my words, but he did not want to go…
Is that what he died of?
- No, the tumor turned out to be benign, and with the surgery, he would live there for a long time. Here they started irradiating him, which even now, with our modern devices, is still very harmful. There was a primitive device in Bulgaria when he died, the doctors told us: If you think he died from the tumor, it was not from that. He passed away from radiation sickness! The doctors said it, the radiation was brutal, it burned his brain. But that was then - at 67 he died…
When he stopped writing, our house was filled with many people - interesting conversations were held. They didn't leave him alone till the end…
And may your readers be alive and well. To work what they like, what they were born to do, to give them pleasure. May all their wishes come true.
