Madagascar

Much loved by audiences, “Madagascar” has been staged at the State Small Theatre of Vilnius for two decades. Perhaps the play’s greatest strengths are its intriguing plot, inventive situations and masterful dialogue, written in the authentic language of the first half of the 20th century. The production is based on a play by Marius Ivaškevičius, now a widely known Lithuanian playwright. With originality, self-irony and intellect, it presents Lithuania as a phenomenon, revealing an authentic Lithuanian perspective on itself and the world.

For this work about Lithuanian utopias, the author “discovered” a unique, non-legendary figure from the first half of the 20th century: Kazys Pakštas, a geographer, traveller, geopolitician and public figure. He was called a “propaganda minister without ministerial rank”, a “marcher for a free Europe”, “Ulysses”, a “patriotic whirlwind”, a “herald of the nation” and a “national apostle”; he was compared with the public and cultural figure J. A. Herbačiauskas, the philosopher S. Šalkauskis and even U.S. President A. Lincoln. Foreseeing Lithuania’s fate, he envisaged moving it to an African country and creating a “reserve” homeland there.

In the first part of director Rimas Tuminas’s production, which makes the audience laugh heartily, the focus is mainly on Kazimieras Pokštas (actors Tomas Rinkūnas and Ramūnas Cicėnas) and his crazy idea of “bringing Lithuanians together for mass emigration” to Africa. The second part belongs more to Salė (actress Indrė Patkauskaitė) and her tragic fate; her prototype is the sensitive poet Salomėja Nėris. “Madagascar” reimagines the myth of S. Nėris, making Salė the equal of the utopian K. Pakštas. The second part also echoes the crash of the “Lituanica”, piloted by S. Darius and S. Girėnas, as well as war and occupation.

Other historical figures mentioned in the production include Emilija Kvedaraitė, a student of the writer V. Mykolaitis-Putinas and a friend of S. Nėris, and the prominent French writer and diplomat of Lithuanian descent O. Milašius (Oscar Milosz), cousin of Nobel Prize-winning writer Č. Miloš.

According to the production’s director, R. Tuminas, imagination is essential to theatrical creation—not figuring out how to stage this or that scene, but imagination itself. It allows theatre to be born anywhere. In the theatre, audiences should feel as though they are at a celebration and enjoy layers of meaning, while also sensing that the celebration is not eternal and will come to an end.