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Rehearsals of the play "Mister Dollar" have started at the National Theatre in Belgrade, based on the text of Branislav Nušić, directed by Miloš Lolić.

The premiere is planned for mid-March 2024 on the Main Stage.

Periša Perišić (dramaturgy), Miraš Vuksanović (set design realisation), Marija Marković Milojev (costume design), Nevena Glušica (music composition) and Ljiljana Mrkić Popović, Ph.D. (stage speech) make the artistic team of this new theatrical work in which the roles are played Nedim Nezirović , Teodora Dragićević, Radovan Vujović, Aleksandar Srećković, Iva Milanović, Aleksandar Vučković, Kalina Kovačević, Dragan Sekulić, Vaja Dujović, Nemanja Stamatović, Bojana Bambić, Vučić Perović, Magdalena Mijatović, Jovan Jovanović, Sofija Uzunović, Danilo Lončarević, Ivana Šćepanović and Sava Milutinović...

"The topicality of a text has never been the key reason for me to put on a play. I belong to those directors who decide on a text, first of all, because of certain values it carries, such as a specific treatment of language and speech or some kind of play with what we regard as theatrical heritage. However, on the other hand, what is interesting is that this text is, indeed, extremely topical. The plot takes place at a high society party, i.e., a party organised by the elite that is at the same time political, financial and corrupt. Regardless of the fact that the play was written almost a century ago, its up-to-date to such an extent that I don't even have to emphasise it by any directing tool. One of the reasons why I chose Nušić's text is that there are many characters in it. It is very inspiring for me that I will have the opportunity to direct large group scenes, and I am particularly glad that there are so many young actors in the cast", director Miloš Lolić says, who will also be in charge of the conceptual solution of the scenography.

The Artistic Director of Drama, Molina Udovički Fotez, wished the cast and crew a successful beginning of the work on the new play, and announced in a short speech that the year 2024 at the National Theatre in Belgrade would be dedicated to Branislav Nušić to commemorate his 160th birth anniversary.

"I am very glad that Miloš Lolić will be directing Nušić for the first time in his career. I wish you to work with dedication, because that's how the results always come. Furthermore, I wish you to enjoy playing and for this play to be healing for all of you, because then it will be for the audience as well," Molina Udovički Fotez said.

As in most of his works, Nušić’s writing in "Mr. Dollar" is also committed, and in this case, he writes about the power of money and the extent to which money is the eternal driver of events in the world - thus giving it the function of the main character of the play. The title itself is an allusion to the importance of money, the greatest obsession of both the then society at the beginning of the 1930s, and the society of today. 

The focus of the play, in which the famous Serbian comedian laughs in the face of a stale  and closed group of colourful dark characters, upstarts and fake bourgeois, is the story of the offended lawyer, Aleksandar Matković, who wants to conduct a "social experiment" with the help of the media...

This will be only the second production of "Mister Dollar" at the National Theatre where it premiered on September 16, 1932 directed by Josip Kulundžić.

The members of the then huge ensemble were Vitomir Bogić, Nikola Gošić, Dragutin Petrović, Jovan Antonijević, Milan Stojanović, Mata Milošević, Žanka Stokić, Vladeta Dragutinović, Viktor Starčić, Mihailo Vasić, Milorad Dušanović, Fran Novaković, Nevenka Mikulić...