The Serbian premiere of the The Marathon Family, the Isidora  Žebeljan‘s opera based on the theatrical text and the screenplay of the film The Marathon Family Runs the Lap of Honour by Serbian director Dušan Kovačevič, will be performed in Belgrade on 14th and 16th October at the Yugoslavian Theatre by the Belgrade Soloists, conducted by Premil Petrović and with stage direction by Nicola Raab.

To confront the rise in the cost of living, the Topalovič family, made up of men from six generations and owner of a funeral parlour, recycle coffins with the help of a poorly paid grave digger. When the head of the family dies suddenly, everybody sets their eyes on the family fortune, including the grave digger, who demands what he is owed. From this point the plot becomes more and more complicated, with a series of unexpected twists that transform the opera into a kind of Baulkan-style screwball comedy. On 22nd October, the same production of  The Marathon Family will be staged in Wien, at the Neue Oper Wien. The opera is a co-production between the Bregenz Festspiele (which premiered the opera last August), Kunst aus der Zeit and the Neue Oper Wien in co-operation with Jogokoncert, Belgrade.