The place is Russia and the time is the 1830s.

Except it's not.

Blank Canvas has created in their production of "Dairy of a Madman" a piece that is as relevant to today's audience as Gogol's short story was in its own day. We hear talk of photocopiers and the American president. The dogs still write to each other, but the trappings of the upper echelon of society is Armani and fast German cars.

Tim Casey brings forward a remarkable modern interpretation of Gogol's decent into one's own imagination, paranoia and fantasy. We wonder at what point does the madness overtake the character or, indeed, was he mad before we meet him?

Driven, punctuated and cocooned within a soundtrack of adapted violin works by Sergei Prokofiev, this premiere of Blank Canvas' unique production of "Diary of a Madman" is bound to be one of the hits of this year's Fringe Festival.