Actor John Malkovich will be celebrating the premiere of the musical "Just Call me God" at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on Wednesday, March 8.

In it, the American actor plays Satur Diman Cha, a fictional dictator of a republic that lies somewhere in the desert. He traps a journalist in a concert hall; the power play requires the journalist to fight for survival.

Malkovich said in a press conference on Monday that he prepared himself for the role by studying some of the world's most brutal dictators to date: Stalin, Hitler, Gaddafi, Idi Amin.

Orchestral music by Bach, Ligeti and Messiaen play while Malkovich's character carries on a diatribe in which he holds fast to the idea that he is comparable to God. It is a play about power and the abuse of power and shifting realities that is timely today.

Though tickets for the premiere are sold out, four additional performances are planned through March 10.

 ct/eg (with dpa)