Сако от велур is a Bulgarian satirical theater play, parodying the excessive red tape in Commie Land Bulgaria.
Ivan Antonov, a linguist, has recently bought a fancy jacket made of velour leather. His friends make fun of some long hairs being left on the jacket, and he gets the idea to have it shorn. For that, he goes to his parents' village and visits the local sheep farm. Passing the jacket off as a privately owned sheep which he has to shear, he gets in trouble some time later when authorities accuse him of evading pet taxes. And the bureaucratic nightmares are only just beginning...
Tropes in this work:
- Answers to the Name of God: Ivan says "oh God" in the bureau hallway while complaining. An echoing voice answers and gives him some tips, introducing himself as "the one hanging above". It turns out to be an employee stuck in an elevator.
- Bothering by the Book: It could very well be named "Bothering by the Book: The Play".Ivan passes his coat as a sheep which is his property raised as a hobby in his apartment's bathtub. Hilarity Ensues because this means that he needs to register the coat as waterfowl.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat: Mr. Chilingirov at. He'd give a protocol for a killed fox for 10 bucks. He also tries to sell other documents such as certificates of good conduct, for a higher price.
- Elder Employee: The one in Waterfowl section. For the nonexistent "sheep" to be eliminated from the protocol, he gets retired by the bureau, so that it can be butchered and "served" at the reception.
- Elevator Failure: The elevator at the Waterfowl department broke and a guy got stuck in it after the elevator technician left. He's still there two months after, giving tips to frustrated people. He took it as a free vacation and takes the time to learn English. The medical academy also gave him some money to treat his stay in the elevator as an experiment. He's waiting for his son to finish engineering school and bust him out.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Ivan clashes with a whole slew of those, sometimes they even obstruct each other.
- 20 Bear Asses: The Waterfowl Section demands either a killed fox or a protocol for one in order to process any request. That's part of a government initiative to reduce fox population.
