Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

Moving Music Theatre Bitola

in association with
Centre of Culture - Bitola

presents

“Diary of a Madman”
a mono-opera
based on the short story by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Musical score, set design and directed by Marjan Nećak

Performed by Ozren Grabarić
Video by Marin Lukanović

Running time: 60 minutes

Original language: English and Spanish

Opening night: 10 June 2015, Bitola, Macedonia

Best Actor Award, 23rd International Small Scene Theatre Festival, Rijeka 2016
Best Music Award, 23rd International Small Scene Theatre Festival, Rijeka 2016
“Mediteran” Award for Best Actor, 23rd International Small Scene Theatre Festival, Rijeka 2016
Audience Award, 18th International Monodrama Festival, Bitola 2016
Award for exceptional expressivity in the borderline region of theatre and other arts, 43rd
International festival of alternative and new theatre, Novi Sad 2016
Kaplja (Drop) award for the individual or group project, 22nd International Theatre Festival
Puf, Pula 2016
Grand Prix, 11th Festival of Mediterranean Theatre Purgatorije, Tivat 2016
Golden Medal for Best Monodrama, 42nd International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun
2017.
Golden Medal Audience Award, 42nd International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun
2017.
Best Monodrama, 5th Be:femon, Bečej 2017.


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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

Moving Music Theatre (MMT) produces contemporary music for performing arts (both
theatre and dance), contemporary opera forms, and musical and theatre experimental
performances.
For many performers, singers, musicians, directors, choreographers and visual artists,
MMT will become a laboratory for exploring ideas and developing innovative performing
practices through the prism of musical theatre. MMT will also work in the sphere of film,
visual arts and multimedia, as well as in education.

Contact:
e-mail: movingmusictheatre@gmail.com
web: marjannecak.com
tel: +38971222076

“Diary of a Madman” by N. V. Gogol is considered to be one of the earliest detailed

record of schizophrenia, long before the disease got its recognition and name in the
medical practice. However, Gogol’s short story doesn’t analyse the disease in the medical
sense, but rather questions the world in which the individual struggles to make sense of
his identity and social status. Gogol, in a lucid manner - through the disease of
Poprishchin, speaks about the disease of the society and reminds us that all of us are in
some kind of conflict with the reality. Which reality is more real? The one we read about in
the newspapers, the one we observe in our immediate vicinity, or the one inside us? 


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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

From the press:

Without a doubt we can state that the mono opera Diary of a Madman (…) is a real
master-piece of acting, music and video art.
(Mira Muhoberac, Croatian Radio 3, Croatia)

Mono opera performed by Ozren Grabarić is currently the best show in Zagreb this
autumn. The ease with which composer and director Marjan Nećak plays with Gogol’s
ideas is incredible. (…) In the end, the doubt whether it is Poprishchin the one to lose his
mind, or has the world lost its mind, remains unsolved, while the whole madness, in this
superb performance, is projected straight into the head of each individual spectator (…)
Departing from his usual approach in which he holds a certain cynical distance from his
characters, in “Diary” Grabarić is fully immersed in Poprishchin’s madness, an approach
which gives shockingly impressive results. The entire multidimensional psychedelic
nightmare is further enhanced by the operatic form in which Grabarić swims with ease (…)
Minimalistic set design consists of videoprojector, a table and an unusual box acting as a
monitor and a loudspeaker. This box shows us parts of human face and represents
Poprishchin’s subconscious and his superego, giving it all an aspect of a deranged
installation in a museum of contemporary arts. If we add to it that the opera is performed in
English and Spanish, with Croatian titles, one could say that Nećak-Grabarić-Lukanović
triumvirate has produced a world-class show that can easily be performed on stages
across the globe.
(Mia Mitrović, 24express, Croatia)

To say that Grabarić’s performance and his vocal interpretation of extraordinary

psychedelic music by Marjan Nećak is well-studied to the smallest detail would be an
understatement. It is not just mysterious and deep, but it builds up very discreetly up to the
culmination. (…) Nećak leads the madman as a perfect colourful character at the brink of
madness, and a small step would suffice to cross the line and fall into the abyss from
which there is no turning back. This is a rare theatrical plaidoyer, innovative, full-blooded
and very suggestive. One of the surprises of this year’s MOT theatre festival in Skopje.
(Todor Kuzmanov, Radio Skopje, Macedonia)

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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

“Mono-opera, an almost unknown genre in South-Eastern Europe, is a logical continuation

of Nećak’s work. This hugely talented composer permanently surprises us with new work,
this time venturing into directing a show tailor-made for an extra-ordinary actor. Ozren
Grabarić - multi-talented dramatic artist from Zagreb - renown for his perfectionist
approach towards building a character, perfectly answered the challenges of staging a
musical theatre version of Gogol’s novel “Diary of a Madman”. And he is no stranger to the
type of music theatre that Marjan Nećak produces. On the contrary, his singing
capabilities, deeply embedded in his energy as an actor, seem to have always been
aiming towards musical, which in this case is really an opera.”
(Svjetlana Hribar, Novi list, Croatia)

“It is an operatic performance that leaves no-one indifferent. It carries joy and satisfaction
of a theatre that reaches to all the senses of spectator/listener who is drawn into this well-
thought of, innovative interpretative satisfaction. This mono-opera is a completely new
experience in the Balkans, clearly well-thought piece full of art, knowledge and with a
precise goal. Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman” is impressively cut by maestro Marjan Nećak,
with deeply expressive performance by Ozren Grabarić (talks and sings in English and
Spanish) whose precise movement and symbolic use of scarce props tell Poprishchin’s
story about all the ills and malfunctions of modern society.” (Ljiljana Mazova, Globus,
Macedonia)

“Croatian actor Ozren Grabarić fascinated the audience with his incredibly energetic
performance.” (vest.mk)

With a new matureness and Ozren Grabarić portraits the character of Gogol’s rebel, so
disjointed from the world that he belongs only to his inner theatre, using various
magnifying glasses to emphasise the fragmented mindset of the protagonist (…) It’s been
a long time since we last saw a monodrama of such depth, originality and lucidity spiked
with black humour such as Grabarić’s operatic “Madman”.
(Nataša Govedić, Novi list, Croatia)

Grabarić is a great master of scenic gradation and culmination, only to subdue his
expression to lower, calmer spheres, and again, and again. In doing so he follows Nećak’s
musical and spatial ideas perfectly, while videos by Lukanović coincide with both, thus
forming a unique rhythm. (…) The way in which Ozren Grabarić presents it is simply
impossible to describe with words. One needs to see and hear it, feel it and burst into tears
over every discarded, hunted, humiliated and tortured human being, from the beginning of
time until the end of the world.
(Darko Gašparović, kazaliste.hr)

Marjan Nećak made a chamber multimedia spectacle ranging between music-hall, musical
monodrama, drama and opera. Throughout the wondrous and multifarious show, versatile
actor Ozren Grabarić is moving with great mastery, at times sounding like an entire
orchestra or choir. The show is visually enriched with video by Marin Lukanović, whose
ideas follow the chaos in the protagonist’s head.
(Kim Cuculić, Fenomentator, Hrvatska)

An extremely brave act of musical theatre… Total theatre in which literature is transformed
into music… The saddest Poprishchin I have ever seen. Bravo!
(Refet Abazi, actor and professor at the University of Skopje)

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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

“Each element of this drama-music-stage-video format emanates - excellence, key

prerequisite for artistic creation. Accuracy, premeditation, precision all fit into the passion
carried by remarkable Ozren Grabarić. The performance thrilled me with simplicity,
dedication and belief that all-or-nothing is the only approach that gives meaning to the
existence of artists in these superficial times.”
(Vitomira Lončar, producer, Croatia)

“You’ve managed to make an old cynic cry.”

(Aljoša Pužar, audience member, South Korea)

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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

Marjan Nećak
Born in 1976 in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia.
Involved in the art of music since early childhood, by finishing primary and secondary
music school in Bitola (contrabass and solo-singing) and at the same time composing a lot
of works. Graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts ESRA Paris-Skopje-New York at the
Department of Film and Theatrical composition.
Has been working at the National Theatre in Bitola as a composer since 1996, and
teaching Interpretation of a song as an associate professor at the Faculty of dramatic arts
in Skopje since 2013.
Composes music for theatre, opera, symphony, chamber music, ballet, musical, film,
television, performances, virtual exhibitions, museum exhibitions etc, taking part of the
most significant music festivals in Macedonia, former Yugoslavia, the Balkans and twenty
other countries in the world.
He has received six awards for best music at the Theatre festival Vojdan Čеrnodrinski,
Prilep.
web: www.marjannecak.com

Ozren Grabarić
Born in 1980. in Zagreb. Upon completing his education in Barcelona he enrolled at the
Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, graduating in 2006.
He played his first principal role under the direction of Relja Bašić at Teatar u gostima
(Visiting Theatre). After that he played number of leading roles in theatres all over Croatia.
Some of the his most notable roles are Arturo Ui, Odysseus, Peer Gynt, Tartuffe, Oliver
Urban in Krleža’s Leda, Bottom the Weaver in Midsummer Nights Dream, Lavrentij Berija
in Shakespeare in Kremlin by Ivo Štivičić, etc.
During his career he has collaborated with renowned directors such as Aleksandar
Popovski, Slobodan Unkovski, Eduard Miler, Tomaž Pandur, Mateja Koležnik, Marco
Sciaccaluga, Paolo Magelli, Staša Zurovac and many others.
Teaches at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb and is a member of Zagreb city
theatre Gavella. He has received numerous awards for his work on many national and
international festivals.

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Moving Music Theatre Bitola Diary of a Madman press-kit

Marin Lukanović
(Rijeka, 1979) graduated Film Studies at the University of Bologna and has been working
in film and theatre since 2000 as producer, director and video designer.
Author of documentaries “Rikard Benčić, for example” (co-directed with Nadija Mustapić),
“Theatre, Our Way”, “Delta - An Affluence of Art” and “Drunken Alley” (in production).
His short “A Standard Story” won an award at 2005 Pula Film Festival. His documentary
“Delta - An Affluence of Art” was awarded at Venice International Film Festival in 2015.
Producer of documentaries and animated films at Filmaktiv.
Frequently collaborates with theatres in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia (Ulysses
Theatre, HNK Ivana pl. Zajca, HNK Zagreb, HNK Osijek, Kazalište Marina Držića, SNG
Maribor, Madlenianum Zemun, SNP Novi Sad, Trafik...) and with film directors in Croatia
and Italy.
Teaches film studies and cultural management at the University of Rijeka.

Collaborators:
Izabela Filov PhD MD psychiatrist
Olivera Makarievska art historian
Elena Kitanovska-Ristoska translator
Julijana Lukić English lector
Martina Perkušić drawing, booklet design
Ges, Ilija Jankulovski set and props

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