2018 - Contemporary dramatic opera

Marjan Nechak, Maja Hrgović

The Little Wire Girl

DIRECTOR

Marjan Nechak

FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT AT 5TH DRAMA FESTIVAL (SNG DRAMA LJUBLJANA): 26TH MAY 2018
REPERTORY/OFFICAL OPENING NIGHT (SMALL STAGE, SNG DRAMA LJUBLJANA): 28TH SEPTEMBER 2018

CO-PRODUCTION OF SNG Drama Ljubljana & Moving Music Theatre, Bitola;
VERSE WRITER Ana Bunteska;
TRANSLATOR Darja Dominkuš;
COMPOSER AND SET DESIGNER Marjan Nechak;
DRAMATURGЕ Darja Dominkuš;
COSTUME DESIGNER Nataša Filipovič;
LANGUAGE CONSULTANT Tatjana Stanič;
VIDEO DESIGNER Marin Lukanović; CHOREOGRAPHER Žigan Krajnčan;
ACTING Barbara Cerar - She, Uroš Fürst - He, (on the recording) Branko Šturbej Policeman`s voice.

A Girl With Strings (2018) is a contemporary dramatic opera about a violinist travelling by train across Europe. In the course of her journey and stopovers at various railway stations, the story of her life unfolds; starting with a girl who wanted to become a top musician, while her father spent the money intended for her school fees, to an old woman who is still searching for her spot under the European sky, having spent her entire life as a busker. The reference to Andersen's »little match girl« is multi-layered. A harsh economic situation, a complicated relationship with the unsuccessful father, the search for one’s place in contemporary Europe, which is increasingly becoming a place of social exclusion confined by barbed wire, walls and general restrictions ̶ the story is a reminder of a position of many gifted individuals who are currently seeking shelter to develop their potentials. However, Europe often turns out to be nothing but »a pale mother«, skilled to perfect how to refuse asylum seekers and crush their high hopes. With fathers who did not know how to protect their children or were unable to look after them, the children are nothing but orphans on windswept train platforms of our cold, alienated technocratic world. But while they are being driven by an unstoppable need for artistic expression, they seem to cling to every opportunity, be it as slim as it may, to enhance their lives and the lives of their random passers-by.

This intimate drama, set on the background of social events in contemporary Europe, takes place in the borderline space between the real world and the dream world, among recognizable, but often unpleasant situations at border crossings and stations, memories and visions linking various times and languages, music and poetry, the bitterness and the beauty of life.

Touring performances:

45th International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre (INFANT), Novi Sad, Serbia (28 June 2018) 58th Festival Ohrid Summer, Ohrid, Macedonia (7 August 2018)

Award:

02 July 2018, 45th International Festival of Alternative and New Theatre
"The award for the most original exploration of a particular segment of the theater language is given to the play "The Little Wire Girl" of the Slovenian National Theatre Drama Ljubljana - Slovenia and Moving Music Theater - Macedonia."

THE LITTLE WIRE GIRL is a play which could be given an award for every segment of the theater language separately. Still, by a detailed analysis and research of every particular segment and their synthesis in this remarkable play, Marjan Nechak creates a specific universal theater language - music. The harmony of all elements: the dramaturgy, the direction, the music, the outstanding acting of Barbara Cerar and Uroš Furst, the set designing, the costumes, the video, the lighting, as well as the intertwining of our Balkan languages with the world languages ... enable us to experience an encounter with the extraordinary composed and magically sung live dramatic music, full of significance and emotions. At the same time, this unison sharpens the painful and personally experienced theme of the play: the constant fight with the personal demons and the social and economic barriers, the dreams stopped at the borderlines, the poetry crushed by the reality. (Justification of members of the Festival jury: Jelena Miović, dramaturg at Atelje 212, Ivan Pravdić, professor of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad and Vesna Dragojlov, who deals with the border forms of electronic art).

From the reviews:

Review - KAZALISTE 21 VIJENAC 7 June 2018.
Marjan Nechak, Maja Hrgovic, Djevojcica sa zicama, Ljubljana 26. May

Masterful Barbara Cerar

The most recent, eighty-minute play of the Slovenian National Theatre - Ljubljana and the Moving Music Theatre – Bitola, premiered on May 26, at 09.00 p.m. among many other events in Ljubljana, at the opening of the 5. Drama Festival, has been created on the base of the latest, ordered text of the Croatian author Maja Hrgović and Marjan Nečak, with Marjan Nečak as a director, composer and set designer and Ana Bunteska, as an author of the lyrics.
The play of Maja Hrgović is a replica to the Andersen’s short story The Little Match Girl: a girl with violin strings is trying to exist in wire-intersected Europe. The translator and dramaturge Darja Dominkuš translated the Croatian title Djevojčica sa žicama as Deklica s strunami emphasizing its musical aspect.
The play at the chamber attic of the Small stage of SNT suggests the crowded spaces of Europe and non-Europe, the mind, the closed emotions and the locked spirit, as well as the horse leash, the whip, the strings and wires of life, the struggle and the beings…
The existential situation is presented at the beginning, by the actress entering the world, wearing a grey-black costume, revealing her blond hair later on, huddling and waiting for her fate and her chance. The transformation of the actress and the costume designer Nataša Filipović as well as the concept of the director remind me of the illustration and the significance of the gloomy fairy tale of Andersen for W. H. Robinson in 1913, as well as of the hump in The Cricket on the Heath by Dickens and the iconography of Perdue, focusing on the position of the gifted artist in modern social non-conditions.
Putting on the large box of art and placing strings around the neck of the violin player is a self-explanatory picture of the crucified suffering within the frames of the father’s violoncello, Europe, the position of women and artists. The initial verification of identity, the question of the judge, the customs officer, the politician, the provocative off-voice searching for reasons to leave for, as claimed, Europe without borders, draws the audience into the play and the judgment of our world. The excellent Barbara Cerar as the Girl, boldly, passionately and without compromise takes the audience on a journey by LMC train through Europe, with different musical styles and expressions of destiny. The impressive music by Nečak (rock, pop, electronic music, circus, opera of two performers) puts the European squares, emotions and events at the intersection. The masterful Slovenian singer and actress of rich voice, full tones and wide range of Brecht’s Mother Courage and The Threepenny opera to the opera arias with lyrics and songs in Slovenian, English and German performs the difficult text of Maja Hrgović, cross-linked by the allegories of authority, Europe and the figure of the long-gone father.
Uroš Fürst, as the Father, Faust’s nightmare, Hamlet’s suspicion, a threat, haunting the street performer who wants to become famous violinist during the journey, realizes different dimensions of fear by being a clown, a blind man, an abandoned husband, a customs officer, a conductor, an acting and singing accompanist.
With the strings and the circus matches, the street theater, the other sidedness, the dreams and meta-wireness Barbara Cerar wins the audience by the instant change of identity and costumes, hiding behind the box, sitting or walking on the edge, opening the violoncello case with the her father’s shoes. She plays the strings on her neck (the most impressive part of the play), takes off her hat and puts on a wig, showing the curve of life from childhood to adulthood, on the streets of Europe, from summer to winter.
The directing and set design of Nečak join the borders of the worlds and art: the platforms, the train windows, the baggage of artists and passengers, the instruments and the music box of memories and hopes. The developed move (Žigan Kranjčan is a choreographer) blends with the movement of the train of life and the video of Marin Lukanović in a cello case, as well as with the warm secret of the violin covered by wool knitwear. In the inner part of the case lid we see the passing of train, the father’s balancing the train and her performing on the city square, the wonderment and fear in close-ups.
The film of a childhood is shown in the case-box, while on the big wall there is a train and life flowing. On the black horizon there are lyrics written in different languages or parts of monologues and dialogues, real or imaginary, written in different fonts and with different speed, the samizdat novels of the stream of consciousness and the flow of thoughts, pop-culture graffiti trying to change something.
This “contemporary dramatic opera”, “metaphoric dramatic and musical score” altered at least a part of the perspectives of theatre, art and European fears and hopes.
It is with great praise that we should mention the possibility of comparison to the Diary of a Madman, the mono-opera of the Bitola theatre of Marjan Nečak, Ozren Grabarić and Marin Lukanović of 2017 on the Ribnjak Stage in Zagreb, based on the text by Gogolj.
The picture of a box as a prison and an allegory of the rule of the world forces over the little man, the mental crisis on the wall of solitude relates to the repressive systems of Bulgakov and a world in which million depopulated souls could not find their place, contribute to the charismatic effects of both plays on the audience, leaving them with the hope of life without wires but with strings of music and performing arts.

Mira Muhoberac

Sponsor of the production A Girl With Strings is EUROSTANDARD Bank, Skopje – Makedonija.

2015 - Mono-opera

Diary of a madman

Musical score, set design and directed by Marjan Nečak

Produced by: Moving Music Theatre – Bitola
in association with Center of Culture - Bitola
Bitola, Macedonia
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English and Spanish
Subtitles: Macedonian

BASED ON THE SHORT STORY BY NIKOLAI VASILIEVIC GOGOL;
MUSICAL SCORE, SET DESIGN AND DIRECTED BY MARJAN NEĆAK;
PERFORMED BY OZREN GRABARIĆ;
VIDEO BY MARIN LUKANOVIĆ;
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

“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?

Festivals - performances

Ohrid Summer Festival, Macedonia, 2015 - 1
Youth Open Theater Festival, Skopje, Macedonia, 2015 - 1
Park - Ribnjak, Zagreb, Croatian scene of alternative theater, October, 2015 - 3
Park - Ribnjak, Zagreb, Croatian scene of alternative theater, December, 2015 - 3
Park - Ribnjak, Zagreb, Croatian scene of alternative theater, honoring the World Day of Theater, March, 27, 2016 - 2

Spring tour 2016

FEN Festival - Opatija, Croatia, 2016 - 1
Park - Ribnjak, Zagreb, Croatian scene of alternative theater, April, 2016 - 3
Small Scene Festival, Rijeka, Croatia, May, 2016 - 1
Monodrama Festival – Bitola, Macedonia, May, 2016 - 1
International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun - 1

Summer tour 2016

Infant Festival - Novi Sad, Serbia, June, 2016 - 1
PUF Festival - Pula, Croatia, July, 2016 - 1
Split Summer Festival, Split, Croatia, July, 2016 - 1
Ulysses Festival, Brijuni, Croatia, August, 2016 - 2
Purgatorie Festival - Тivat, Monte Negro, August, 2016 - 1

June 2017

International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun - 1

The play has been performed 32 times till September, 2017

Rewards for mono opera Diary of a Madman

Small Scene Festival, Rijeka, Croatia
- Best music
- Best actor
- Best performance - awarded by the Mediterranean Magazine, May, 2016

Monodrama Festival - Bitola, Macedonia
The audience award for best play, May, 2016

Infant Festival – Novi Sad, Serbia
Award for experimental and alternative theater – for the unique expressiveness of the line between the theater and other art. June, 2016.

PUF Festival - Pula, Croatia
Award for individual and complete realization, July, 2016

Purgatorie Festival, Tivat, Monte Negro
Grand prix for the best play on the Festival - Purgatorie, August, 2016
Grand prix for the best play
On its final performance, the play was presented on the Purgatorie Festival in Tivat, Monte Negro, where it received the ultimate grand prix of the Festival.

Golden Medal for Best Monodrama, 42nd International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun 2017;
Golden Medal for Audience Award, 42nd International festival of monodrama and mime, Zemun 2017

The jury of the 11 Festival of Mediterranean Theater Purgatori, 2016 consised of: Mani Gotovac, theatrologist and president of jury, Tanja Boskovic - an actress, Zoran Zivkovic - a producer, after 10 watched plays in the official competition, pronounced the Dairy of a madman, produced by Moving Music Theatre, directed by Marjan Necak and performed by Ozren Grabaric, the best play.
The trio Gogolj, Necak, Grabaric is unusually precize and elloquent in a theatrical way. They search for an inspiration from each other. Its seems as if they are a jazz trio. Each of them contributes to the glow of the entire play. Their words, music, direction and acting show their briliance on much higher emotional and cognitive level.
Such work can only be realized when there is no „I“ within the course of work, when the rehearsal is done without measuring the time, peacefully, slowly, exhaustively, precisely - stands in the explanation of the jury.

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.

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 Mitrovic, 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)

“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 wellthought 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 Gašparovich, 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, Croatia)

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)

“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)