The present-day government has heavily supported the theater as a "mass school for the all-round ideological, ethical and aesthetical education of the people." An extensive repertoire of Bulgarian plays conforming to the demands of Socialist Realism and to the prescribed content and interpretation has been built up. It is performed by some forty-six theatrical companies throughout the country. Classics by William Shakespeare, Johann von Schiller, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and others are also performed regularly, as are selected contemporary plays by playwrights from all over the world. Unlike elsewhere in Eastern Europe, there has been no experimental or avant-garde theater in Bulgaria.
The presentations of the Satirical Theater in Sofia are the most daring and innovative theatrical presentations available to the public. Although their humor is often biting, their theatrical style seems rather ordinary and traditional to a Western theatergoer. The Satirical Theater is, nevertheless, the most popular theater in the country; tickets for its performances are sold out weeks in advance. In addition to satirical reviews, the theater presents classical satires by Bertolt Brecht, Nikolai Gogol, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and others. On the assumption that "people who laugh think no evil," which is an old Bulgarian proverb, the authorities have tolerated greater outspokenness on the part of Satirical Theater productions than in the more serious forms of artistic and creative expression.
As a medium of artistic and intellectual expression, Bulgarian films have lagged behind those produced in other Eastern European countries. They have received little recognition in the West, where they are generally considered old-fashioned in story line interpretation as well as in technical approach. Several attempts at imitation of the surrealism of Alain Resnais and Louis Bunuel or of some of the other contemporary Western cinematic directors, have proved failures in the eyes of the critics at home and abroad.
In common with other communist filmmakers, those in Bulgaria have concentrated for years on the suffering of the people under Nazi oppression during World War II. Most of these films about war and resistance have a propaganda purpose that outweighs any efforts toward artistic or technical excellence. Since the late 1960s most feature films have focused on contemporary life and its problems. It is these films that have shown some experimentation in contemporary cinematic techniques on the part of Bulgarian directors.