In May 2025, Mark Bless portrayed Milan in Locusts (Skakavci) by Biljana Srbljanović. The production was staged at Theater am Werk in Vienna, directed by Marina Margo and presented by the Stanislavski Youth Theatre. It was performed in Serbian with German surtitles.
Milan is a man caught between family expectations, responsibility and his own desire for freedom. His complicated relationships with those closest to him reveal many of the tensions at the heart of the play: between generations, within families and within ourselves.
What made the role particularly interesting for Mark was the chance to step far outside his own age and life experience. He portrayed a middle-aged husband and father, while at the same time playing a son struggling with rejection from his own father. Being both a father and, at the same time, a son seeking acceptance added another emotional layer to the character and gave Mark the opportunity to explore relationships and conflicts very different from those in his own life.
Taking on Milan gave Mark the opportunity to work with a more complex and mature character and to discover a different side of himself as an actor.
