A sardonic history lesson in 90 whirlwind minutes, The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria tells the misremembered story of a Balkan monarch who died while defying Hitler over the deportation of his Jewish citizens in 1943.
Was Boris the savior of nearly 50,000 Jewish lives? Or were his intentions not quite so heroic?
Opening on Sunday as part of 59E59 Theater’s twentieth annual Brits Off Broadway season, Boris III is a fast-moving play and production from Out of the Forest Theatre, an ensemble-based London group which likes to view historical subjects through a seriocomic lens, as in its Bury The Hatchet saga of Lizzie Borden.
Here the central figure is Boris, who inherited a throne at 24 when his father, the fantastical King Ferdinand, abdicated on the losing side of World War I. A wily politician and a popular ruler, Boris did well by his country for the next 20 years until World War II began. Craving Bulgaria as an ally, Hitler promises to hand over territories lost in the previous war.
Pressured by public opinion and a government corrupted by Nazi advocates, Boris reluctantly signs on with the Axis powers but with a proviso that no Bulgarians would actually fight. But when the Third Reich machinery next threatens Bulgarian Jews, Boris starts to dig in his heels.
All of this complex European history — and more, such as significant context plus bulletins about World War II as it progresses – is delivered swiftly through direct narration, pointed exchanges and cogent scenes. The storytelling is infused with jazzy music performed by a dynamic five-actor ensemble that includes co-authors Sasha Wilson and Joseph Cullen.
Numerous real-life characters including “some truly awful people” are depicted by most of the ensemble, with the exception of Boris, who is portrayed solely by Cullen. Sporting an apologetic mustache and a likewise manner, Cullen does not cut as handsome a figure as the actual Boris did, but his unprepossessing image feeds into a narrative that suggests the king was a silly-ass aristocrat eventually galvanized into heroic action defending Bulgaria from Nazi incursion.
Much of this historic and biographical material is rendered humorously, even flippantly, by the authors who wryly consider past events with modern-day cool. Early in the play it’s noted that women have little to do with this saga and later on, after Queen Giovanna gives Boris advice, she exits saying, “I’ve already been as strong and outspoken as the 1940s will allow.”
Played by the actors on fiddle, guitar and flute, old time pop hits and folk songs punctuate the story. Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” is outfitted with lyrics about Macedonia and the Black Sea waters. A jaunty “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön” ironically is employed for a symbolic tango that sees Boris politely evading the embrace of the Nazi SS official in charge of executing the Final Solution in Bulgaria.
After this midway point, the cartoon tone of the proceedings darkens. Even as Boris is depicted as purposefully spewing a smokescreen of anti-Semitic invective, he and the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox church covertly strive together to thwart Nazi plans. If the historical record tends to get spotty here, the text admits certain events transpired behind closed doors – particularly that crucial meeting with Hitler held a few days before Boris unexpectedly died of who knows what.
Although the play concludes rather hastily, the inventive final encounter between Boris and Hitler resonates. The drama’s mostly sympathetic view suggests that Boris was a pragmatic leader who did his best for all Bulgarians regardless of faith, but could not protect everyone.
Hannah Hauer-King, the play’s dramaturg and director, fluently stages the freewheeling text in a casual epic theater style upon a stage sparsely furnished by Sorcha Corcoran with a two-step platform and a threadbare throne. At times the theater’s center aisle and mezzanine become playing spaces, while Will Alder’s lighting design employs bold colors and patterns that yield to cold, stark tones as the mood grows sinister.
Demonstrating a range of UK accents, Lawrence Boothman, Clare Fraenkel and David Leopold believably assume the characteristics of various individuals as easily as they change their period clothes designed by Helen Stewart. Swaggering in a black leather greatcoat as a Nazi bigwig, co-author Sasha Wilson also dons full-length mink to be the enigmatic Giovanna. The ensemble ably supports co-author Joseph Cullen’s affecting, anxious performance as a beleaguered king fated to wear a crown of thorns.
The Brief Life & Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria opened May 5, 2024, at 59E59 and runs through June 2. Tickets and information: 59e59.org
