Adaptation: Ivana Dimić
Set Designer: Boris Maksimović
Costume Designer: Lana Cvijanović

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The Miser has found a pot of gold. He does not want to spend the money, or to give it as a gift to someone who needs it. The pot of gold becomes his obsession and he spends time counting money and talking to it. The Miser has a daughter Andrijana, a girl of marriageable age. She is in love with Kamilo, but Kamilo’s mother wants her son to marry a rich girl. The Miser, however, does not give a dowry, but plans to give his daughter to Zlati Kum, a rich old man, Kamilo’s uncle. With the help of his faithful servants and good friends, Kamilo marries Andrijana.

Marin Držić wrote the comedy Skup (The Miser) according Plautus' famous comedy Aulularia (The Pot of Gold).

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Marin Držić (1508 - 1567) was born in Dubrovnik. From the same family in previous generation came also a famous poet Džore Držić. Marin Držić played an important role in political and social life of the Republic of Dubrovnik. He studied in Siena in Italy. At the University he was made a proctor. After his university days, Marin travelled a lot to Vienna, Constantinople, Venice… In 1548 his theatre company "Pomet družina" played at the central square ("prid Dvorom") his comedy Pomet. That text until nowadays has not been found. In 1551 "Pomet družina" in the Town Hall (Vijećnica) presented Držić’s most famous comedy Dundo Maroje. In 1556 the group "Njarnjasi" played Skup (The Miser).
Other dramas by Marin Držić: Tirena, Novela od Stanca, Mande, Pjerin, Arkulin, Grižula, Hekuba.

- Annual theatre awards in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Theatre "Boško Buha", Theatre T and the National Theatre in Sombor.

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Jagoš Marković, a director and lecturer at Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Department for Theatre and Radio in Belgrade, is one of the most important contemporary Yugoslav directors. Jagosˇ Markovic´ was born in Podgorica in 1966. He graduated Theatre directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in 1987, when he was only 21.
Among his most important performances are: Wizard of Oz, Lukrecija iliti Ždero, Tartuffe, Le Femmes savantes, Čarapa od sto petlji, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Adam i Eva, Hekuba, Elektra, Kate Kapuralica, Decamerone – A Day Before, Maratonci trče počasni krug, Naši sinovi, Les Trois Mousquetaires, Kokoška, La Cantatrice Chauve, Comedy of Errors, Hasanaginica …

Awards:
- For the contribution to the culture from the Ministry for Culture of Montenegro (1993);
- Prize "Bojan Stupica" for the best director (1993);
- Prize for the best director at the Festival of Children in Kotor (1994);
- Prize for the best author in 1995, the Ministry of Culture of Serbia;
- Prize "Ćuran" for the best director, Festival "The Days of Comedy" in Jagodina (1996);
- Prize of the Budva City Theatre for the best performance (1996);
- "Sterija’s Award" for the best director (1996);
- Award "July 13^th" for 1997;
- Award "Davidoff" for the contemporary scenic expression (1999);
- Annual theatre awards in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre, Theatre "Boško Buha", Theatre T and the National Theatre in Sombor.

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PRESS REVIEWS:

…Jagoš Marković has reduced the whole text of Drzić's comedy to only about thirty lines, but he has told both the story and the meaning of the play, which was inspired by Plautus' "Aulularia", the comedy of a miser. Nothing spoken on the stage is classical stage speech. Even when the actors speak Drzić's lines, the words are exclaimed, shrieked, or mumbled - they express emotions, not units of meaning… And, given such an elementary expression, they tell the least about avarice, but more about eternal love and death…

Jovan Ćirilov Drzić as Our Contemporary, Blic

…From the arrogance and rudeness of Djurdjija Cvetić's miser, we surmise the coquettish affectation of the character, whereas in Becket-like creation of Zlati Kum there has accumulated a huge wealth of nuances studied by the actor Predrag Ejdus for years. The rest of the cast follows the same principle of delicate complication of associations. THE REAL PEARLS ARE Cvijeta Mesić, Olga Odanović, Aleksandar Srećković, and Gordan Kičić, while Rade Marković and Branka Veselinović present themselves in a new, unexpected light. Maša Dakić, Marinko Madžgalj, Stefan Kapicˇic´ and Marko Janjic´ announce their arrival."

Aleksandar Milosavljević The Charms of the Enticing Play, Glas Javnosti

…Until the end of this theatrical season hardly will any other event surpass the importance of the performance, in which Jagoš Marković has shown Drzić's "Miser" in a new key, in accordance with the view that in today's high class theatre verbal and non-verbal factors must equally fit into an organic whole on the stage.

Vladimir Stamenković High Class, NIN

RIJEKA, 11 April – Fifteen minutes of ovation and obvious exaltation of the audience are only a part of the atmosphere which on Saturday evening fulfilled the space of the big hall of Rijeka’s Croat Cultural House at Sušak, where the Yugoslav Drama Theatre from Belgrade performed play of Marin Držić, a famous Renaissance playwright, The "Miser". They took part at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre. All what actors speak on the stage is not at all a classical stage speech. Even when they are telling Držić’s words, they have a character of exclamation, of screaming, mumbling; these sounds are the expression of emotion and not of meaningful entirety. As if they are speaking in language of our prehistory ancestors. Talking in such elementary way, they speak very little about misery but very much about eternal love and death. We have a radical, fantastic and individual director’s interpretation of the classic play…

Ljiljana Pandža, Beogradski »Skup« u Rijeci, VIJESNIK, Croatia

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AWARDS:

- Djurdjija Cvetić won the Statue "Milivoje Živanović" for the role of The Miser in the performance The Miser, 8^th actors celebration "Milivoje Živanović" in Požarevac (April 2003)

- Award for the best performance at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre in Rijeka (May 2003)

- Jagoš Marković as a director won the first prize at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre in Rijeka (May 2003)

- Lana Cvijanović as a costume designer won the first prize at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre in Rijeka (May 2003)

- Olga Odanović as an actress won a prize at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre in Rijeka (May 2003)

- The Miser won a special award for the best performance according to an audience choice at the International Festival of Chamber Theatre in Rijeka (May 2003)

- The Miser won main award at the Yugoslav Theatre Festival in Užice (November 2002): "Ardalion" for the best performance, Jagoš Marković as a director, Boris Maksimović as a set designer, Lana Cvijanović as a costume designer, Đurđija Cvetić for the main role, Predrag Ejdus for the role of Zlati Kum