Diary of a madman – Nikolai Gogol

Kykladon StreetTheatre – Lefteris Vogiatzis

First Performance: May 16, 2025

Production: Lykofos | Giorgos Likiardopoulos

A few words about the play

A small man—one of those people whom everyone passes by almost without noticing—poor, insignificant civil servant Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin endures social pressure, the feeling of being the last wheel of the cart, the weight of failure that renders him perpetually invisible. In his attempt to compensate for this social and existential void, Poprishchin looks very high. A fleeting moment—divine or diabolical, perhaps?—ignites his love for her, the daughter of the faceless and distant Director. From that point on, a reverse journey is set in motion, along with a mad game played at the limits of his peculiar and sensitive personality, which oscillates between madness, delicate understanding, and idiosyncratic creativity.

Guided by—observers, helpers, and at times adversaries—two figures who accompany him as mediators of his adventure with the world of the “normal,” Poprishchin descends into a kind of descent into Hades, followed by an attempt at consoling ascent. Ultimately, this journey reveals his intuitive nature, enriching our perception of the world through a plunge into the labyrinths of the human mind. His path, rarely linear—harsh yet peculiarly liberating—leads him to a salvific passage.

Poprishchin’s “elevation” carries him from a nightmarish and oppressive everyday existence to a redemptive vital outlet and, finally, to a new reality—one that, for others, is called madness.

Source: Lykofos