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	Ø Little Miracle in the Chaos Ivan Dodovski, 26.10.2001 Ø The Masterful Shining of Bajrush Mjaku Prof. Dr. Nebi Islami, FAKTI Ø The Love of two lovers Liljana Mazova, 26.09.2001, NOVA MAKEDONIJA Ø An Expressive Acting From Bajrush Mjaku *Jeton Neziraj, KOHA DITORE Ø Brilliant interpretation, meticulous directing Ivan Ivanovski,06.10.2001, MAKEDONIJA DENES* Ø The Force That Speaks Through Acting *Dr. Luljeta Isaku, 17.10.2001 FAKTI, 17.10.2001 Ø Theatre Scene - Feathers for Flying Cvetanka Zojceska, 25.09.2001, VEST Ø 75 minutes “madness” in the National Theatre* Ø The Culmination of a Sensational Career Fadil Hysaj Ø Under the sign of domestic production Todor Kuzmanov, 28.09.2001, PULS Ø Theatre and scene impressions B. Sadiku, RILINDJA Ø The "Secret" that made the actor triumphal Laura Papraniku, 29.09.2001, FAKTI Ø A brilliant play of Bajrush Mjaku Naime Beqiraj, BOTA SOT Ø AKTUEL, 12.10. 2001 *Emilija Eftimova* Ø Essay Qani D. Mehmeti, FAKTI

Theatre Scene - Feathers for Flying
by Cvetanka Zojcevska

About the Diary of the Insane by Gogol, and by Ivan Popovski and Bajrus Mjaku

There are plays that you can write about right away. There are also plays where everything is clear and you have an opinion about them, but you have so much to say and you feel like there is a lack of words. The Diary of the insane by Gogol and also by Ivan Popovski and Bajrus Mjaku is that kind of play. It has a superb direction, an idea that makes your adrenalin go up while you watch it, fierce actor's play and everything that makes a theatre piece complete. This is the Diary of the Insane. There is definitely direction in this version of the Diary of the Insane. To put it in other words: director Ivan Popvski and actor Bajrus Mjaku breath together.

The Love of two lovers
Liljana Mazova

In that placed “glass bell”, as in a centrifuge with strong spins, the director Ivan Popovski and the scene master - Krste S. Djidrov, set up a boxing-ring for Bajrush Mjaku where he ‘boxes’ with himself and with all of them who make him sick.

In that story about madness, about ambitions, about love and reason of a marginalised person who can, even crown himself as a Spanish king, for love and loneliness, Bajrush Mjaku reaches the top of his acting habitus. With a supreme acting mastery, he enters the character, in all its lost battles with himself and the surrounding. Dreams, reads letters, eats boiled potatoes, handles his sharpened feathers, fights with the invisible dog, they “put” shackles around his hands or they “poor” cold water on his head, he rides chariots of horses fast like the wind, he crowns himself with the drawer from his desk, he looks for his place in the sunrise of this world…

Under the sign of domestic production
Todor Kuzmanov

At the very beginning of the MOT the first festival premiere occurred. The actor of the Albanian Drama from the Theatre of Nationalities in Skopje, Bajrush Mjaku, in an exceptional directing from Ivan Popovski, masterfully played the "Diary of a Madman" from Gogol. Popovski here, as opposed to the "Macedonia" spectacle is represented as a director with a refined sense for lyrical and drama moments of the marginalised character from the mid nineteenth century in the Tsarist Russia, the clerk Poprishcin who will fall victim of the badly ordered world. He will allow that space and will deserve his five minutes where as a Spanish king will be at the reach of realizing his dreams and desires. The "Diary of the Madman will remain remembered by its directorial creation, but even more so by the acting interpretation of Bajrush Mjaku, who fascinated the public with his volcanic energy, his spiritual volume and the emotional range, and the lyrical shaking in creating the complex character of the well intended but unhappy Poprishcin.

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Brilliant interpretation, meticulous directing Ivan Ivanovski

	For the creation of Mjaku one must immediately say that he enlightened the image of the madman with great internal proportions and a miraculous plasticity, striving to bring the very same (plasticity) to a completed perfection. As an artist with remarkable cerebral and analytic capabilities, Mjaku played the complicated structure of the role in a masterful way, he unveiled it with a virtuous professional mastery and with such a power that is not easy to overcome. read more...

The "Secret" that made the actor triumphal
Laura Papraniku

The monodrama "Diary of a Madman" - an array of cries or a triumph of a

professional actor Mjaku

The realisation of the monodrama "Diary of a Madman", from the aspect of elevating the values, it has a special meaning for a professional work that Bajrush Mjaku as an actor has completed. Without any fear, one can say that Mjaku with this monodrama has achieved to pull all his force and mastery together as an actor and only in this way he represents himself as a great actor, he swallows the whole scene that surrounds him, and above all he proves that he can be omnipotent in what is called an ARTISTIC TRIUMPH.

AKTUEL, 12.10. 2001

Emilija Eftimova

However, one of the plays that left almost everybody speechless is the “Diary of the Madman” directed by Ivan Popovski – a monodrama in an exceptional realisation by Bajrush Mjaku. This play, whose premiere took place during MOT, will definitely remain for a long time in the collective memory of the theatre enthusiasts, primarily because of the masterful play of Mjaku, and as well as of the subtle, but strong directorial guidance from Popovski.

Little Miracle in the Chaos Ivan Dodovski "Diary of a Madman" from N.V. Gogol; Independent project of Ivan Popovski and Bajrush Mjaku

	The actor Bajrush Mjaku is an integral part of it, destined to unveil in himself the character of Poprishcin. His breathing is stuck to the glass walls, the floor is a clean space, an evil hell upon which one must not tread.Exactly this kind of proximity creates the effect of the internal point of view: we are not "outside", everything is seen "within", we follow the internal monologue of the character, his madness in gradations. read more...

The Force That Speaks Through Acting
Dr. Luljeta Isaku, 17.10.2001 FAKTI, 17.10.2001

To play in a monodrama is a deep experience, not only for the actors, but also for the audience. The role of a lunatic in this monodrama interpreted by Bajrush Mjaku is not only an expression of the actor’s courage, but also a self-pride.

Bajrush Mjaku cries, laughs, he becomes the king of Spain, he becomes no one. In this time of total human madness, one gains the impression that only the lunatic is able to overcome the challenges without getting any crazier. This person lives in a closed ambient. He does not come out of this surrounding. He is unhappy there, he is happy there, he is crazy there.

Bajrush Mjaku with this role creates a great poetics and richness for all of us.

Essay Qani D. Mehmeti The Monodrama named an anthology of an actor who has proven himself

	Bajrush Mjaku with his experience as an actor, he turns the madman into a lover of art, or the saying "one can't live from the theatre" turns it to "I can't live without the theatre, because everything would seem upside down". read more...

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THEATRE AND SCENE IMPRESSIONS

After the monodrama "Diary of a Madman" with Bajrush Mjaku as the main protagonist.
B. Sadiku

A marvellous play from the doyen of the Albanian theatrical scene of Skopje

Going to theatre in Skopje in this more or less anarchistic times, when it is neither war nor peace, when feelings as if someone is following you where you're going are prevalent, whom you meet, what you talk about, what are the topics in discussions, does one talk about the war that lasted more than six months in an effective manner.

Gogol's drama is adapted to the times in which we are living anywhere in the Balkan's, but especially here in Skopje, the chaos which is prevailing here when one awaits for solutions to the whole situation, but also the path itself of where this multinational society is headed to, even with illusions that everything can be wiped out from their memories, the war, the victims, the heroes, and the martyrs, and...

THE "DIARY OF A MADMAN" WAS SHOWN IN

THE NATIONAL THEATRE IN PRISHTINA
A brilliant play of Bajrush Mjaku

Naime Beqiraj

For a play like this which is seldom seen in our scenes, the director Esat Brajshori from Prishtina thinks that this monodrama is a theatre of a powerful grotesque, with a millimetre directing and a brilliant interpretation from Bajrush Mjaku. "For us artists that live in Kosova, this play is a positive slap, so that we may treat theatre more seriously than we do now."

An Expressive Acting From Bajrush Mjaku

About the "Diary of a Madman", from Gogol, directed by Ivan Popovski, interpreted by Bajrush Mjaku

Jeton Neziraj

Remarkable Acting by Bajrush Mjaku

An impressive energy was springing from Bajrush Mjaku. The scene was completely conquered from his dynamic acting. His characteristic gestures, his up to perfection coordinated movements, a complete absorption of the mise-en-scène, etc., were the characteristics that made his acting completely expressive. He approached his character with a complexity which interlocks in itself all the possible layers and sub layers of emotional acting, which in turn create the character, in its ideal meaning.Bajrush Mjaku achieves to synthesize all conflicting layers, antagonistic states which exist within the personality and to create a drama within itself, which is at times expressed with impulsiveness, almost aggressive, and at times with an extreme contemplation.

The Culmination of a Sensational Career

Fadil Hysaj

Complete and original acting with manifold dimensions

“The Diary of a Madman” is full with original acting which not only unveil the agitated world of the personage and give the play another many-meaningful and dynamic dimension.

One of the most important details were the feathers which the Mjaku personage uses to write his diary and when at one moment he puts the feathers between his fingers he almost creates this image of a symbolic bird-man, or the archetype of an angel who has lost his wings…

The artistic findings of Bajrush Mjaku in no moment do they seem as directorial findings, although they are certainly such. Through persistent trials they have been acquired and assimilated to the level of becoming organic. This has made for the game to be more expressive in the emotional as well as rational level. That’s why an impression is formed that all these are momentary impulses, they are improvised situations as musical themes of jazz…

In “The Diary of a Madman” Bajrush Mjaku achieves to use all his creative potential, as an actor and especially with this role he reaches his apogee of his maturity as an actor…

75 minutes “madness” in the National Theatre

“The Dirary of a Madman” in the courtyard of the National Theatre in Tirana was brought by a famous actor in Macedonia, Bajsrush Mjaku. The venue in the National Theatre, although the time for the start of the performance was unusual for the Albanian audience, was full at 21:30.

The performance put on stage by the Macedonian director Ivan Popovski in 75 minutes brings the Gogolian madness alluding on today’s reality when the political and human disagreements are present in all places where live Albanians.

Although written in a different time the work of Gogol in the National Theatre was performed with a great analogy for the capital’s audience which although in open space was listening the words of the Gogolian madman wonderfully interpreted by Bajrush Mjaku.