The Trajectories of Expression of the Hero’s Identity in Contemporary Lithuanian Theatre

Doctoral student: Paulius Ignatavičius
Supervisors: Prof. Jonas Vaitkus, Prof. Dr. Ramunė Marcinkevičiūtė
Department: Acting and Directing
Intended duration: 2017–2021

Abstract

Paulius Ignatavičius

Today’s Europe becomes more and more liberal, but at the same time one can notice a rising radicalism. This leads to a confrontation and polarization of society. There is less solidarity and compassion among people, and more alienation and hatred. The attitudes which seemed as already vanished, are reborn, such as nationalism, racism, homophobia, selection according to identity. The people are manipulated in regard to identity; identity becomes a tool for war, anger, oppression. That is why it is important and relevant for a human being in today’s society to “set up oneself or to re-establish oneself – to create an identity and to experience it reflexively“. (Leonidas Donskis, 2008)

The present artistic research project aims to answer the question whether theatre can be a tool to change a person’s identity, and if it is such a tool, how does theatre change the society? Which performances in contemporary Lithuanian theatre are dealing with the question of identity, and what impact has a European theatre fashion to the hero’s identity and its expression in Lithuanian theatre? The issue of national identity in contemporary Lithuanian theatre performances will be also analyzed. What kind of national identity is seen by contemporary Lithuanian theatre and what kind of identity is created and formed by it? I will not claim to be an expert of identity, but in my research I will try to understand, what it means to be a European, a Lithuanian or just to assign oneself to one or another social formation, and what kind of responsibilities this identity implies and how does theatre influence an identity of a person.

My creative art project will be a performance of William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”. I think that “Hamlet” is the play which demands from an artist an honest and conscientious answer to the question: What kind of identity and which values you choose, what kind of theatre are you representing? “Hamlet” is a mirror of the present time, in which everyone should not be afraid to see an image of himself, and an image of the society he is living in. Also in “Hamlet” a change of the society’s identity is codified. It is also the play that enables a confrontation with your parents’ generation. The essential question in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is the question why does Hamlet have to be an executor of his father’s revenge, why he must be what his father and the society wants him to be, why does Hamlet has to be a Hamlet.