The breeze whips away its salty curtains to reveal a stage stretching away into the beating sea, from which the local kids hurl themselves with abandon into the waters below in a never-ending game of dare. Frustrated fishermen and sunbathers, drunk with heat, linger under the spotlight of the summer sun and against the backdrop of spectating couples, cyclists and tourists. Made of rusted memories and sea-raped concrete, the Bridge has become more than the enduring symbol of Burgas, Bulgaria. It is the theatre scene where life, in a town of dead poets, plays out.
Anastas Petkov was born in Burgas. He graduated from the American University in Bulgaria with a degree in Journalism and since 2005 he has been working as a freelance photographer. In 2007, Anastas interned under photographer Rodney Smith in New York where he developed an interest in documentary and street photography. The Cruelest Theatre is his first project, which he completed in 2012.