The latest production of Shakespeare’s legendary play tells not only about Hamlet’s eternal struggle with himself and against himself, trying to fulfill his father’s order to avenge and kill, but this time “Hamlet” opens the curtain to a new context of world events. And again – even centuries later – so bloody accurate.
The director of the play, Viesturs Kairišs, for whom this is the third production at the Mikhail Chekhov Theater, comments on the choice of genre, which is a “chronicle of the wartime” in the specific production, and describes the main motif of the play, admits: “It is a play, the place of action is “Denmark”. A country that still poisons its political opponents like in the Middle Ages, and there, mediocrity oppressed by an inferiority complex can become king. A country where everything is just pretending and playing “theatre” and things are not called by their real names. A country that is at war with its brother people over a small slice of territory – so small that there isn’t even enough land to bury all those who died fighting for it. Maybe such a country does not exist at all? Hamlet tries to discover the truth beneath the facade of lies, hypocrisy and rot. But he never knows where the poison will be applied next.”
The main role in the new production is played by the actor Maxims Bussel, who evaluates the character of Hamlet and its meaning more accurately than the obvious: “Shakespeare’s uniqueness lies in how much his writing does not lose its relevance over the centuries and how much you can read between the lines each time and understand something different, attributable to for today. The center of this production is not only Hamlet, here what is happening in the world at the moment can be read much higher, only through Hamlet’s personality and through the prism of his perception of the world.”
The cast of Hamlet includes most of the Chekhov Theater troupe – Maxim Bussel, Alexander Malikov, Julia Bernhardt, Yekaterina Frolova, Igor Chernyavsky, Rodion Kuzmin, Veronika Plotnikova, Anatoly Fechin, Yevgeny Cherkes, Volodymyr Gorislavets, Konstantin Nikulin, Vladislav Yanushenok and Dmitry Pales.
The creative team under the direction of director Viesturs Kairiš consists of scenographer Ieva Jurjāne, movement consultant Kristīne Brīniņa, composer Timofejs Pastuhovs, lighting artist Yevgeniis Ganzburg and stage text author Roman Dolžanskis, who adapted Boris Pasternak’s translation to the creative idea of the director.
