By Samvel Danielyan

Aravot.am

The Facebook page of the Union of Theater Workers of Armenia congratulated playwright and storyteller Elfik Zohrabyan on his victory. The international festival short play competition was held in Nicosia, in English and Greek, where only 8 plays were to be selected.

Eight plays written in English were selected from 180. Among the winners was Zohrabyan, laureate of the Mark Twain International Prize, whose plays are staged in Armenian state theaters.

Authors from 14 countries participated in the competition: England, the USA, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Cyprus, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Armenia, Scotland, Hungary and Azerbaijan. The winning plays are planned to be staged in the summer of 2027.

The jury included Hazen Cuyler, the artistic director of The Greenhouse Ensemble Theater, who won the “Best Director” award in New York, actress, director Angela Konstantinidou, Stockton University professor, literary critic David Rossell and others.

This is Elfik Zohrabyan’s 3rd international literary award, and his tragi-farce “Fish on Land” recently won first prize in the competition announced by the Writers’ Union of Armenia.

He is one of the most frequently staged authors among his generation, with his unique writing style: lightness, humor, irony, a thick ideological layer, modernity. Zohrabyan is also known to the reader for “The Crystal Man” and the recently published “February 30” books of new fairy tales. To our half-serious, half-joking question: do you agree that it is more difficult for a writer to receive awards in our country than abroad, the playwright replied: “I partly agree, partly no.

Zohrabyan replied: “First of all, your country is the first touchstone for you. Yes, your path is thorny, but you must stand firm in your country. Being staged in one or two places does not mean that you are a full-fledged playwright. You must have life experience and technique. In the literary field, my plays have been evaluated as they deserve, in theaters, many directors and actors have also evaluated them, and the purely dramaturgical part of the theater awards ceremony still remains in limbo, for objective-subjective, and sometimes even non-artistic reasons. A good literary critic is able to catch and evaluate, say, any literary invention, a new approach, and in theater awards ceremonies, a person can be a good actress, but not really understand the play. Dramaturgy is a separate field. I would like there to always be literary critics in the committees evaluating plays. This is not against anyone, it is a purely professional matter. Most importantly, I am happy that the name of Armenia is written in the list of winners. I am grateful to all the people from whom I have learned something, and I still have so much to learn…”

The playwright, who is also one of the authors of the Vanadzor Hovh. Abelyan State Theater, noted that he wrote the play “The Other One” in English. It will be staged in Nicosia in 2027. “My biggest fear was that the play’s subtext, irony, and silences would be lost in another language. It turned out that they are not lost,” noted Zohrabyan.