RECEPTION OF SHAKESPEARE IN SOVIET LATVIA: OĻĢERTS KRODERS’S INTERPRETATIONS

Abstract

The article offers a brief insight into theatrical productions of Shakespeare’s plays in Latvia, focusing on the tragedy “Hamlet”. The article also analyses four theatrical productions of William Shakespeare’s plays by Oļģerts Kroders during the Soviet times: “Romeo and Juliet” (1966), “A Tragic Story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” (1972), “The Winter’s Tale” (1980), and “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” (1984). The theatrical productions of these plays demonstrate the influence of the world theatre processes on Kroders’s creative handwriting. The article is an attempt to find a connection between the director’s conception and the social situation of the historical period when the play was staged in Latvia. The materials used for the article include the reviews of every theatrical production in the press, two observations of the rehearsal process (1980– 1984), the explications of the director in the copies of the text of the play and in his private archive, and the ideas Kroders expressed in my interviews in 2011 and 2012. When interpreting translations of Shakespeare’s works, Kroders has remarkably solved not only linguistic and cultural differences which are characteristic of translated texts; he has also ideologically blended the two different epochs, addressing topical themes for the audience of Shakespeare’s day, without vulgarising or impoverishing the multi- layered message of the original.