Reviews

Design works

2011 Transformation and Revelation Theatre Design Exhibition, Cardiff

"to contribute to a company devising process and to collaborate with non theatre environments and their inhabitans....I also noted exciting work in these areas by Katherina Radeva" Kate Burnet review of the exhibition in SBTD's Blue Pages

2011 Epic by Foster&Dechery- national tour

"technically ingenious, with films of interviews of grandparents projected on to moving screens" The Guardian

2011 Lay Me Down Safe by Kate Weare for Scottish Dance Theatre 2011

**** The Herald, Scotland

"Weare’s fuss-free choreography astutely pinpoints the risks, including the negative impact of peer pressure, while Katherina Radeva’s designs – both sexes in light tunic-frocks, with floor and back-cloth striped in greys – steer the relationship tussles clear of cliche" Mary Brennan

"Weare's piece is a joy. Gorgeously stylish in movement, set and lighting, it brings to the fore Weare's beautiful understanding of the power of physical tension to convey love and sexuality, and also strife and anguish" Mark Brown, Sunday Herald

"With the entire cast, female and male, wearing short-skirted tunics, Weare plays cleverly with ideas of gender and identity" Kelly Apter, The Scotsman

*** "Desire is often to the fore, but because everyone wears similar tunics and skirts, gender is not" Sanjoy Roy, The Guardian

"Lay Me Down Safe is a sensuous foray into the tumultuous sphere of love and relationships" Katie Fish- londondance.com

**** " there is no denying that this strong, enigmatic piece reveals a talent to recon with" Donald Huter, The Times

"Five male and three female dancers are all dressed in tunics, instantly raising a gendered sub-plot" Hetty Blades londonist.com

2010 Elephant 21 by Mayhem Company, Theatre Local

**** Time Out Magazine Critic's Choise

"A lively, visually accomplished romp" Time Out Magazine

2010 Ill Met by Moonlight by Moonfool

**** Whatsonstage

"Production Designer Katherina Radeva adds to the eerie athmosphere" Whatsonstage
" always exhilarating "
" plays like jazz variations, beautifully orchestrated " Observer

2009 Glass Mountain by Trestle Theatre

**** Whats On Stage ****Venue Magazine

"...stunning images..." The Observer

"Some wonderfully imaginative work by designer Katherina Radeva" Bristol Evening Post

"The movement involves all the ladders which take on their own paths in the drama and Radeva has devised some simple but effective costume changes to indicate the shifts from the present day to a timeless past...." Whats On Stage

2008 Fat Christ by Gavin Davis
“A word has to go to Katherina Radeva who provided a very serviceable set” The British Theatre Guide

2008 Veil by Horse and Bamboo Theatre
“Veil is a huge step forward for visual theatre” The Stage
2006 The Underpants by Steve Martin
“Katherina Radeva’s design is impressive” The Stage, **** Metro, **** The Sunday Telegraph

Performance works

Fallen Fruit- now here- now gone( as a work in progress) 2010

Katherina Radeva's "Fallen Fruit" is already formally inventive, incisively written and dynamically performed. Both accessible and uncompromising, the recent work-in-progress showing at Artsadmin suggests Radeva is engaged in a fertile and rich creative process, and I very much look forward to the project's ongoing development and presentation.
CJ Mitchell, Deputy Director, Live Art Development Agency

“Fallen Fruit – now here, now gone asks difficult and important questions about what it means to be free in the 21st Century, after the collapse of the Eastern bloc, and when the dynamic forces of globalisation has entered former communist states such as Bulgaria. Radeva’s visual, physical and writing style conveys this fragility tenderly through metaphor and emotional resonance. I look forward to seeing the work develop further, as its subject is of great importance in a world where
global freedom is increasingly contested.”
Manick Govinda, Artsadmin and Manifesto Club

“Katherina Radeva's theatre performance 'Fallen Fruit - now you are here - now you are gone starts off with a large number of cardboard boxes set around the stage, some of them marked with a letter of the alphabet and one of them hanging suspended from the ceiling - reminding me of a punch bag for boxing. These boxes prove to be especially prolific through the course of the performance as they enable Radeva to set up diverse spaces and situations on stage, construct
and play with words, to tell the stories of two characters who are signified by one of the boxes each, to create order and chaos, hope and destruction. The political situation of the East and West in the late '80s is convincingly approached through personal stories from two characters based in Radeva's country of origin, Bulgaria, and through the artist's own memories and a Bulgarian TV show of that time. The performance is well developed and shows a great sense for timing and rhythm. Areas to develop further could be to bring in more risk into the performance and to work further on possibilities of interacting with the boxes. Also I felt the attitude of the TV presenter could be an area to work on further whilst I loved the interaction with the audience who could answer the show questions in a playful way. All in all a strong performance with a potential for further development.”
Sylvia Rimat- artist and curator of You and Your Work, Bristol

“Clever, funny, moving, very assured and refreshingly individual. It was a real treat, well worth the chilly trek to Wimbledon!”
Richard Sharples- Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Art

“Compelling”
Peter Farley-Senior Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Art

very strong performance language, very unique, very modernist in a way, i like that! it kind of grabs you, and then you are captured...
also i loved you interaction with the audiences, very gentle, non-imposing... and it worked....
the whole set design and playfulness with it and words on boxes - that were already there - worked really well... lovely presence, some beautiful writing, your narrative...
overall, it was brilliant, so full, and so captivating and so touching and so you - what a different world you created and sustained it so well. Lena Simic, The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home

Seeing Fallen Fruit I was struck, as I had been in previous encounters with Katherina Radeva's work, with her ability to use a simple repetition of created objects to create a strong framework on which to build a performance. The simple boxes that feature in the piece are used to great effect, creatively and dynamically bringing characters and stories to life. The piece itself, tackling that point in time where history starts to develop from memories is, by turns, charming, moving and educational. Tim Jeeves on Fallen Fruit at Bluecoat, Liverpool 2010

Kitty has no pity- the Art of not giving up 2009

Kitty was a very nice, touching show- surpricing and delightful Ron McAlaister- South Hill Park Director

Native Birds 2009

I was moved by the work by both the content – the loss of freedom, the joys of travel and migration, scapegoating “others”, and the false notion of the foreigner as an virus infecting the host. The visual design of the work was beautiful, particularly the 1007 origami birds that covered the stage. Radeva took risks and pushed the boundaries of her practice to write and perform a work that included extensive use of text, spoken word and animation. As a writer, she has great potential. She is also a wonderful performer who captivated my attention. Manic Govinda, Artsadmin, London

“The show seemed to imply the fullness of a life, with an attendant respectfulness, a definite exuberance, as well as a kind of melancholy. I felt privileged to be watching and listening. It is a rally striking piece visually but I want to say that the visuals (i.e. the illustrations) were superb, nice and distinct, very much informing how I saw you as a performer…... Text-wise, there was some really great stuff: I got the impression, at certain times, that you were trying to talk your way to the freedom that you wanted as a girl, to unburden yourself, to prepare to fly. And the words moved very elegantly through the space, I liked the range of what you talked about and how you talked about it (the ordinariness of the eating chips bit, the Easy is when bit). Easy is when… is one of the most touching texts I have heard on stage in ages” Simon Bowes- Performance Artist and Writer