Not politically irrelevent!

Legendary Maltese actress Gemma Portelli, the star of many comedies, has died at the age of 75. One can call Gemma a self-taught actress - and a brilliant one. Do you think an actor is the result of talent, of actor training, or maybe of both?

I would not like to pin any general theory on such a difficult subject as nature vs nurture or using Gemma Portelli as a token. I did not know her, unfortunately, very well personally but my appreciation of her was exactly the opposite of many of my fellow 'intellectuals' who tended to scorn her performances as being populist.

I found them admirable for at least three reasons - the first is that she was able to express the extremely illusive individuality of Maltese culture, womanhood, and humour. I am not yet able to say exactly how she did it in performance, although I could do it with less difficulty if I were to analyse the scripts which she herself occasionally produced and which should certainly not be lost.

Perhaps the very depth of the identification of her self-expression with the specifically Maltese accounts for her not being regarded as a top-quality-artist, especially by those theatre-mongers who serve a fare of the sort of theatre that is currently fashionable or controversial in the London West End or Broadway. In spite of globalisation, this kind of theatre remains unable to strike a chord of deep resonance in Malta because it fails to attain to the universally human and remains superficial, even if brilliant.

In turn, this glitzy effect may be due to its lack of what I consider to have been Gemma Portelli's second great quality. Her acting was always physical. The deepest meaning in her message was always conveyed by bodily means, even if these means were restricted to voice, as in her participation with the Radju Muskittieri. Even though she became known mostly because of her much later television appearances, she excelled mostly through stage presence.

In my opinion Malta needs a share of theatre which is less text-based, focused on the performer's bodily language, and which injects the dramaturgy with issues of current social relevance. What do you (who follows theatre in Malta with constant rigour) think of this?

Paradoxically, it is acknowledged by most television analysts that soap operas and most other staple TV shows are dependent on verbal play rather than on the kind of physical presence that is felt in the theatre but can only be mediated in diluted form on TV. Practically all of our current television series suffer from both the weaknesses of verbosity and bodily dumbness. Portelli had all the qualities which Olivier Mongin, who, in my opinion, is the most acute film critic of our time, has called 'the burlesque body'. Possession and mastery of such a body is the common secret of the great comedians of all ages despite the big differences between them.

The third quality which Portelli had was her realisation that naturalism was not the language of the theatre. She used facial expression as if it were a matter of changing masks. She manoeuvred the mobility of her body in the quite artificial manner of Commedia dell'Arte performers. She used her voice in a manner that showed very intense self-consciousness and self-discipline in its production. I have no idea how much genetics contributed to this language, but I am sure that it embodied a high degree of intelligence.

In many cases within the European theatre scenario, theatre is done on a full-time basis, and as a result theatre productions are based on long-term actor training. This is not (apart from a couple of research theatre groups) the case in Malta. How is this affecting the quality of the Maltese theatre currently being created?

I gave top priority when I was rector of the University to setting up a Theatre Studies course, although it was not possible at the time to set it up in line with how performance studies are now being organised in universities.

Unfortunately, whenever attempts were made to format a national cultural policy for Malta, it was never possible to secure agreement on the setting up of a national theatre company. We have even lost the existence of any co-ordinating body in the theatre as we used to have with the National Drama League in the past, or even as we have with the Dance Council. Yet such a lack means the loss of many opportunities such as are made available through participation in the Mediterranean Theatre Council and other mostly EU-funded initiatives in support of theatre, ranging from the ancient classical or ritually-based to the contemporary.

Development in this area needs to be a prime concern of the Arts Council primarily because of its importance in local culture and secondarily because of its potential in terms of cultural tourism. The contemporary theatre has induced many of us to re-evaluate what used to be called teatrin, but its regeneration in terms of the electronic age that has placed the contrast between physical and virtual presence as the cultural crux of the day, has hardly begun. The figure of Gemma Portelli may well be taken as the icon of the importance of the topic.

Fr Peter Serracino Inglott was talking to Nicole Bugeja.