The Akkademja tal-Malti's drama committee continues to monitor the situation regarding theatre practice in Malta and we would wish to comment on certain aspects of the performing arts scene in Malta as reported in Showtime (The Times, August 1).
Our first comment relates to the selective material that features in Showtime. The idea to publish such a supplement is worthy of note but, unfortunately, most articles and features are linked directly to mainstream events conducted by institutions like the Manoel Theatre and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity. In the last edition, for example, St James Cavalier features in no fewer than six stories, all dealing with selective groups or events. However, Showtime does not give any credit or show any interest in chasing stories that would reflect what is happening with Maltese theatre outside Valletta. Or other official sites like San Anton Gardens.
The Akkademja tal-Malti is particularly worried by the way that Showtime has dismissed the problems assailing vernacular drama in Malta. In one leading, unsigned story (Theatre & St James) Showtime said it contacted "a few leading-lights in the theatre world, including a number of private theatre company heads, to ask why they seem reluctant to put on a Maltese play". The unsigned article does not mention any group by name but goes on to explain that "give or take a preposition (?) the answer was also the same 'they lose money' period".
The Akkademja begs to differ very strongly on the assumption that Maltese theatrical material should be destined to oblivion just because private companies are not prepared to stage it. In the first place, there are many instances in the recent history of local drama when subscription was very heavy and most significant, starting from the Ebejer cycle of plays in the 1970 1980s coming down to the last two or three years, when plays by Joe Friggieri, for example, drew record crowds.
The very reason why local commercial companies do not want to touch Maltese material (they are too money-minded to care for the development of drama in Maltese) should be the obligation that drives our nationally-funded institutions to devise a serious strategy in favour of native dramatic forms. We have seen recently how a group like Etnika has given a new and exciting lease of life to traditional Maltese music, so the Akkademja expects that theatre institutions that thrive on public money should come up with visions and strategies to lift local drama from the current all-time low.
The Akkademja tal-Malti has been insisting that national institutions like the Manoel Theatre and St James Cavalier should assume the role of pilot-theatre motivators, able to bring Maltese theatre in the centre of the community, with relevance and intensity, for which, after all, they have been founded and are being funded.
It is also, we believe, the grave responsibility of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) to assess what is happening at institutions like the Manoel Theatre and St James Cavalier. Now that the MCCA is chaired by a respected writer of plays in Maltese, namely Joe Friggieri, it would be perfectly legitimate to expect a significant shift in policy in favour of Maltese dramatic creativity. One also expects that institutions like the University of Malta, through its theatre studies programme, add-resses the problem by introducing creative writing courses, a regular feature at other institutions of higher learning overseas.
Moreover, we feel that the ministry responsible for the arts should take stock of the situation once and for all and take an active role in promoting drama in Maltese at a time when all Europe is stressing national identity through imaginative cultural programmes. It should be remembered at all times that the notion of democratic practice in Europe is based on cultural diversity and subsidiarity and the Akkademja tal-Malti feels that theatre is a very powerful tool within this framework. Few art forms that reflect national realities like theatre can serve such a purpose.
Finally, the Akkademja tal-Malti would want to insist once more on the need to neutralise certain interest groups that seem to be everywhere all the time. We have in mind, in particular, the way that the first Culture 2000 programme was handled, again by St James Cavalier. Clear demands for accountability and transparency have been made in the press but all we got was a deafening silence. In a front page article, Showtime interviewed the general manager at St James Cavalier who gave a rendition of what we can download for ourselves from the internet but who said nothing about the way the participants of the first drama Culture 2000 programme were selected and on what criteria. We do not even know whether the working language of the first Culture 2000, declared to be costing Lm47,000 in the first phase only, half of which is "directly coming from Culture 2000", would benefit the Maltese theatrical idiom in any way.
The Akkademja tal-Malti has also learned, from an official press release by the Department of Information (July 18), that St James represents a "drama organisation" when it is a fact known by all those connected to the theatre scene that there exists no such "organisation" at St James. If a drama "organisation" really existed at St James Cavalier, then we should have been told how it was set up, when, by whom, who is directing it, who the actors are, how it is being funded and what its mission statement is. Perhaps these are important questions that should be cleared, once and for all, by the Council for Culture and the Arts. If there exists indeed "a drama organisation" at St James Cavalier, the Akkademja should know as it is in our interest to lobby for and to lay claim to the legitimate creation of a national theatre plan with democratic ownership and wide-ranging audience development.