Dortmund.
On television he chases murderers, in the Ruhr area he will soon be on stage as Alexis Sorbas. What connects Miroslav Nemec with the hero of the novel.
Most people know Miroslav Nemec primarily as Chief Inspector Ivo Batic. In this role, he has finally solved 92 cases in the Munich crime scene in recent years. But now it’s going from Munich to Crete for a short time, from television to the stage. There, Nemec becomes Alexis Sorbas, the eponymous hero of the multiple Oscar-winning cinema hit from 1964.
“Yes, most visitors come because they know me from the scene of the crime,” the 68-year-old is not fooling himself. But that’s not bad. “It only takes a short time before they get involved with the character of Zorbas,” he has repeatedly stated. And at the end they often say: “We don’t even know them like that.” Nemec laughs. “But I’ve always done a lot of things.” He has done films, performed on stages, written books and made music in one of the two bands he plays with. “Actually, I’ve been busy with other things around the clock for years. People just didn’t notice because the crime scene is so dominant.”
“With music, light and movement”
The fact that he is now becoming Alexis Sorbas is mainly due to Martin Mühleis, director, producer and specializing in adapting literature for the stage. “You’re exactly the right person for the Sorbas,” he told Nemec some time ago. In a classic reading, they test the reaction of the audience, then decide to spice things up “with music, light and movement”, as the two-time Grimme Prize winner explains with almost British understatement.
Critics, on the other hand, speak of an “architecture made up of language, music, lighting design and acting” and a “star role” for the native Croatian, in which he plays all the characters with partly disguised voices rather than just speaking. And who also dances the legendary Sirtaki. However, not to the classic by Mikis Theodorakis, but to music that was specially composed for the piece.
Many visitors know neither the book nor the film
But the audience hardly notices that. Many visitors to the performances know neither the book by Nikos Kazantzakis nor the film starring the grandiosely acting Anthony Quinn, Nemec found out. “But after a few minutes they understand what it’s all about.” Namely, about two men who couldn’t be more different. There is the sensitive English writer Basil and the impulsive Macedonian Alexis Zorbas, who lives for the moment, expresses his feelings with his whole body and mostly acts instead of talking. Together, the two want to put an old mine on Crete back into operation.
Nemec thinks there’s a little Zorbas in him. Something about the man for whom the world is created anew every day and who accepts life as it is – with all the joys, but also with plans that don’t work out. Someone who never gives up, who knows how to enjoy, even when times are bad
Be prepared if something goes wrong
“Sometimes I check how I live, what the Zorbas still has to say to me,” says the native Croatian. “If I can manage to pay attention to my pleasurable moments. Not too excessive, one pleasure after the other.” Which isn’t always easy. “Because you’re stuck in your work.”
And this “don’t let it get you down” that is inherent in Sorbas, Nemec knows that too. Even as a child, adults never intentionally let him win the game of chess that was so popular in his homeland. “You also have to learn to lose,” his uncle said. “I don’t know if you can actually learn that,” says the actor. “But no matter how well you plan everything, you have to be prepared for the fact that things can go wrong.” Being left by your wife or girlfriend or losing your job, “that’s hard,” says Nemec. He knows that, he’s been through it all himself. He doesn’t like perseverance slogans, “but it’s important not to despair and get up again in such situations. Otherwise you’re wasting your life.”
Return to old places of work
Friends and acquaintances used to say about him that he “can’t do nothing”. Nemec laughs. “That’s over.” Now he sometimes says “no” to an offer. Also because he wants to have time for his family, for his wife and young daughter. He still can’t lie in a deckchair on the beach for a week. But switch off when gardening, talking to friends on the phone or cooking – “that works”.
Professionally, he says, he’s lucky enough to only be able to do what he feels like doing. He is very keen on Zorbas. The short tour takes him back to old places of work. To Cologne, but also to the Ruhr area – to Dortmund. He knows the area, he lived in Altenessen for a few months during an engagement in the early 1980s. A time that remains connected with many memories. For example, to the owner of a kiosk that he went to as often as possible. Not primarily to buy anything, but to hear him talk. “The man spoke like Jürgen von Manger,” says Nemec. “And I loved him.”
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