11/21/2025
Just saw Diary of a Madman at the American Theatre of Actors (314 W 54th St), and I’m still stunned.
Ilia Volok gave one of the most powerful one-man performances I’ve seen in years—he didn’t just play Gogol’s nameless clerk, he became him. A low-ranking bureaucrat sharpening pencils and copying documents, ignored by the woman he loves, collapsing slowly into insanity… Volok’s transformation is so complete that I wanted to hug him after the show as if he were still that broken soul on stage.
The music choices were unforgettable: Una furtiva lagrima first appears in an eerie, dream-like, almost AI-processed arrangement during his most delirious moments—then returns at the end in Caruso’s authentic, scratchy recording when we finally see him clearly as a patient in an insane asylum. Heart-wrenching.
Simple staging, torn underclothes that reveal themselves as a restraining jacket, and a performance that feels painfully real. I did not sense time passing at all—70 minutes flew by like moments.
Four shows left:
📍 Fri Nov 21 — 8:00 PM
📍 Sat Nov 22 — 8:00 PM
📍 Sun Nov 23 — 3:00 PM
📍 Mon Nov 24 — 8:00 PM
📌 American Theatre of Actors, Beckmann Theater (314 W 54th St, NYC)
Highly recommended. If you love Gogol, great acting, and psychological theater, go.
