In Hell With Ivo

Would you rather: Heaven with Trump or in Hell with Ivo?

If Bulgarian queer artist Ivo Dimchev had his way, hell would at least have the better show. A singer, performance artist and activist, Ivo turns sexuality, faith, power and his own life into art that has little time for good taste, convention or personal boundaries.

When the pandemic shuts down the world, HIV-positive Ivo breaks all the rules and begins offering free concerts in people’s homes. Performing becomes an artistic compulsion, a defiant response to isolation and a way of searching for his place in a world where he has long felt like an outsider. More than 400 intimate home concerts help build Ivo’s international cult following, eventually taking him to bigger stages. Yet even New York, a mecca of experimental theatre, is not quite ready for what Ivo brings to the party.

In Hell With Ivo gets up close and personal with a man who can be charming, filthy, self-absorbed, vulnerable and bloody difficult – often all at once. Ivo disarms himself before anyone else gets the chance, then turns the whole thing into a song.

Welcome to hell. The piano is already tuned.