MEDIATHEK

"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 strug- gles 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 of us? While conflicts between East and West, left and right, religious and atheistic world outlooks become more and more intense, every person fights for his own normality and in this fight he is declared crazy. This chamber spectacle in duration of one hour, through music, video and theatre performance explores a distorted view of a low-ranking civil servant who is marginalized by the society and cast off as unwanted. 

// A word by composer and director Marjan Nećak: Spontaneity is a key segment when you start the creation. This was the way we created this mono-opera which includes many different musical styles and still heads down the road of the classical music work - the Opera... at the beginning in a form of an Overture and very quickly veering off the path changing into a Symphony of the mental, spiritual and emotional condition of the main protagonist. His captivity in himself, his inability and his sentences half-way composed by Gogol without the musical line wouldn’t sound so strongly and astonishingly no matter how successful the acting interpretation is. The music is like the water. While we sail on it, drink it and defend ourselves from it, we are wrapped in a unique acoustic garment without being aware of it. Having in front of me one multitalented, intelligent and curious actor, who I wrote this piece for, setting myself up to higher creative challenges I though that this actor can do it all, but he can not do nothing! You should give a lot to such an actor and he will give you too much so you should be proficient to choose the best! His musical and acting talent is something rarely found on the scenes in Europe.