AUBG’s sole Baron, Aernout van Lynden, finally got back into clothing appropriate to his title in a play directed by Siyka Doneva this semester. Aside from noble clothing, the Baron also got an opportunity to deal with a dragon, command a secret society of a truly ghastly nature, and have a chat with the Grim Reaper.

On April 7, theater professor Nedyalko Delchev, together with van Lynden and about a dozen students, opened this semester’s theater season with Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! follows a plot of the Supreme Grand Master Lupine Wonse (van Lynden) to overthrow Lord Havelock Vetinari (Delchev) and install a puppet king. Wonse plans to achieve his goal by summoning a dragon to instigate mass panic, using the only copy of a book that explains the process.

The local librarian (Shpatar Morina) later reports that the book has been stolen to a new volunteer of the city guard – Carrot (Ilya Petrov), who tries to investigate the matter.

The play mocks today’s world by illustrating it in a rather hilarious way. Wonse, like an average politician, would do anything to overthrow the current head of state. After the dragon, which was meant to replace Lord Vetinari, proves not to be as obedient as he hoped, Wonse becomes the servant of the dragon King. He seems careless about all the people that have died just because of his hunger for power.

The “Thieves’ Guild,” an allusion to today’s mafia, is closely integrated into Lord Vetinari’s government. The thieves’ actions seem to be unrestricted. When Carrot, who seems to know the book of law by heart, and is still uncorrupted, puts the leader of the Guild under arrest, a huge scandal ensues.

Unlike other AUBG plays, Guards! Guards! is spiced up with some special effects and professional looking lighting. The acting performance was good enough to cause the whole hall to laugh at least a couple of times. Actors definitely did a great job having in mind most of them are not professionals.

Guards! Guards! allowed AUBGers some cultural time off before the ugly finals’ weeks of the semester. Even though some might label it as too long, and thus boring, the play is a “must see” because of its comedy, special effects and of course the cast.

Make sure you take full winter gear to survive through the over-an-hour-long play, as Blagoevgrad’s Opera Hall is an unbelievably cold place.

Originally posted on www.defactobg.com.

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