Mamontovas Plays Hamlet

“There’s something rotten in the state of Lithuania” may not have the same ring to it as William Shakespeare’s original, but Andrius Mamontovas – Lithuania’s biggest rock star – is playing Hamlet in an international festival celebrating the playwright’s work.

Mamontovas, who holds 15 Bravo Awards (or Lithuanian Grammys) has run his thespian career in parallel with being a musician, is no stranger to the part.

He was surprised when originally offered the role in 1996, but has since gotten used to it and has been doing it for 15 years.

This new Lithuanian production is part of Globe Shakespeare Festival being staged in the UK at London’s Globe Theatre and featuring foreign theatre groups performing one of The Bard’s plays in their own language.

Apparently Shakespeare has a particular significance in Lithuania and the neighbouring Baltic states.

In Soviet-era Lithuania, the directors found it a useful way to symbolically address forbidden issues.

“I miss those secret messages … there were always little secret messages from the artist to the audience,” Mamontovas told BBC News. “But there’s no need for that now because you can say what you want openly – it’s more entertainment now.”

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wasn’t a fan of Hamlet, maybe because the Baltic versions of the play made uncomfortable comparisons between the setting of Hamlet, the dark world of Elsinore, and the Kremlin were perhaps a little too close.

The fact Hamlet’s uncle Claudius usurped the throne, depriving the young Hamlet himself, was seen as a parallel to Stalin’s seizure of Lenin’s leading role and the demolition of such rivals such as Trotsky.

The allegories were sufficiently close for Stalin, a keen theatregoer, to turn on renowned Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold, eventually having him arrested, tortured and shot.