Two actors, 14 characters

Following its sell-out success with Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, Unifaun Theatre returns to the theatre scene with Two, a play performed by two actors who play 14 characters.

Written by Jim Cartwright, Two will be performed at St James Cavalier between April 21 and 23 and April 28 and 30.

It is a collection of monologues and duologues from different characters in a typical local pub, mixed with battles between the landlord and landlady as their marriage falls apart, culminating in a shocking revelation of the past event that began their break-up.

Like in his other plays, Cartwright manages to transform everyday colloquial northern dialect into lyrical, almost poetic dialogue.

Cartwright has written the scenes to range from hilariously funny to intensely moving to chillingly sinister, but all the characters seem to be written with a great deal of affection and with no suggestion of ridicule.

Most of the action takes place in the smaller area in front of the bar at the pub table or bar stools, or behind the bar, where the landlord and landlady are serving customers. Among the different characters interpreted are Mrs Iger (who loves big men but is inconveniently married to a wimp), the bickering landlord and landlady, the abusive Roy and his suffering wife, Moth (the modern day aging Don Giovanni), an old gentleman who claims he is visited by his wife's spirit and a little boy who just wants his daddy.

The Guardian newspaper described it as a "sharp, salty, quickfire evocation of the surface gaiety and underlying melancholia of English pub life."

In the Unifaun Theatre's production, the two actors are pantomime veteran Edward Mercieca and Pia Zammit.