Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Theatre of the absurd
I am sure many of you have seen Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a nostalgic pot-boiler of a film which to us Maltese means that little bit more because of the similarities between us and the Sicilians. I am also sure you will recall one of the most moving scenes when the now- grown-up Salvatore watched the spool of film that was left to him by Alfredo the projectionist. With tears streaming down his face, he watched each of the censored snippets that the parroco, a fierce but endearing Don Camillo-like character, had censored way back in the 1950s. Kiss after kiss followed in rapid succession; performed by legends like Audrey Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Ava Gardner, Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and a galaxy of Hollywood stars on a secret roll which Alfredo had, unbeknown to the parroco, kept hidden and painstakingly put together in a bewilderingly sensual cinematic medley.
We have come a long way since then, or perhaps not! Each age has its social mores and its moral tendencies to contend with. In Malta today, we are facing a crisis of monumental proportions. Nobody seems too sure what the definition of freedom of expression is, especially with regard to the arts. Because of the way the world has swung since 9/11, we have a growing reactionary force that is becoming increasingly intolerant while, on the other hand, we have a group of intelligentsia that, in the face of all this, become ever more daring and provocative. Because the law and the establishment are on the side of the reactionaries, the Rhadamanthine judgements that are meted out, as in the most recent case concerning the play Stitching, are like red rags to a bull with the result that drama companies will either knuckle under, which I seriously doubt, or become ever more defiant, which seems to be on the cards. Where will it all end?
The reasons given for the initial banning of the Anthony Nielson play were and still are that it is just too obscene and immoral to be staged. There were various reasons listed, none of which were any different from the content of the two preceding plays produced by Unifaun Productions, namely Mercury Fur and Blasted. In fact, I reviewed both plays which take one straight out of one's comfort zone but which are redeemed in the end by love. Strange but true.
With Stitching, the buck stopped with Teresa Friggieri who, until now, on behalf of the Film and Stage Classification Board, has stuck to her guns and who has had her initial decision confirmed by Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon in a 115-page judgement! The court has ruled that the board's decision has not contravened the right to freedom of expression.
What I fear is that these judgements on works of literature, and here I also include the controversial Vella Gera story, Li Tkisser Sewwi, is that these works are being assessed on a par as if the author and the players are actually committing the said obscenities by acting them out. These are plays. The actors are acting and the audience can choose to attend or not to attend them. By confirming the banning of Stitching we have unleashed yet another Pandora's box of never-ending controversy, which surely will lead to even greater acts of cultural barbarism in future.
From pre-Christian times, plays have dealt with the phantasmagorical unwholesomeness of the human psyche. Ergo, should we ban Euripides' Medea because she killed her own children? Should we not ban The Bacchae, also by Euripides, because a drug-crazed Agave killed her own son Pentheus in a lesbian orgy and drank his blood? Should we not shudder in horror at the matricide of Electra by both Sophocles and Euripides and eschew the added parricide of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, not to mention the incest?
These plays are, in essence, just as morally disturbing as Stitching - provided, that is, the way one's mind works. Therefore, if one were to produce a contemporary stage version of Agamemnon by Aeschylus, for instance, would not the immediacy of the adulterous and murderous elements be too much for the tender sensibilities of the Film and Stage Classification Board? I am sure it would.
One may argue that the Greeks were a pitifully immoral lot and that with the advent of Christianity the Great God Pan was declared dead! But no, let us move forward by 15 centuries to the works of William Shakespeare, whom I am sure nobody will hear a word against and whose very name evinces awe and admiration that have survived and transcended the ages. Yet, let us take Titus Andronicus; not only is the plot horrifyingly immoral but I am sure would definitely more than rival Stitching when, at the end, the Queen of the Goths eats her own sons in a pie served by the vengeful Titus - and that's just the tip of the iceberg! Macbeth is all about regicide and guilt while Hamlet deals with fratricide, matricide and perverted revenge. Antony and Cleopatra's illicit and ill-fated lust cannot be held up as a shining example by any stretch of the imagination, while The Merchant of Venice is horrendously politically incorrect, isn't it? I could go on and on but I am sure that by now you have understood the drift of my argument.
On the same premises as those invoked in Mr Justice Zammit Mc-Keon's extensive judgement with regard to Anthony Nielson's Stitching, the board can, with impunity, ban each and every one of the plays I mentioned irrespective of whether some of them have been performed without interference for over 1,000 years.
Is that not the height of absurdity? Nothing is new under the sun, and all we can conclude is that tales of man's innate perversities have provided such excellent theatrical material that they have kept audiences spellbound from time immemorial.
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Joe Xuereb
Jul 10th 2010, 15:26
@Farrugia, bitten off more than we can chew have we?! Pleading that we overstayed the welcome here, and abused the space, is such a transparent excuse for exiting. Incidentally, YOU abused the hospitality. I, as a non-believer in fudge foundations, I do not abuse anything. Non-belief is a pretty strong convictions. You could try it. One warning however, once there you cannot go back. Second warning, if you believe in congregation numbers for safety, non-belief is not for you. The infant, you see, has to be weaned from its mother in order to survive in a tough world. The Italians, I believe, call this failure to let go of mummy's skirt (dejjem ma' djul ommu), they call it mammismo. To many, famous for their put-downs - hence, their insecurity - I am a mummy's boy. A mummy's boy is a frightened, old-fashioned homosexual, speechless and cowering in a corner. I would not describe myself as speechless, exactly. On that you'll have to agree Andrew. Except you call it waffle, because it terrifies you. So you spit at the clouds. With the inevitable result.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 9th 2010, 19:25
Dignity and respectability are mere facades, a charade. I don't do any of that so I take a risk of being upfront. A risk because it's against the trend. I don't do trends as they short-change so. Of course it's easy for me to put my cards on the table as I don't live in a snake-pit. So maybe there's no alternative to dignified respectability. Of course one can hold up a mirror to oneself and look through the glass darkly. Most cannot bear this. But one thing's a cert. When something's wrong, one cannot ignore it.
Some commenters make excellent springboards for me to air my views for the benefit of the intrepid. And that puts paid to any disappointment that is wished upon me. Burying one's head in some music and beer so as not to face up to one's demons - how does that work?
I am not worried in the slightest about abusing mine host's space here. To Zammit Tabona lateral thinking comes naturally seeing he avails himself of god-given intellect like we all should. This comment is still relevant to censorship.
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 9th 2010, 11:19
@ XUEREB
I think we have abused the hospitality of our host here and i happen to be listening to some exceptional music from the past (Creedence Clearwater Revival, in case you are interested); you may continue to warble on about things that are far removed from my views, thoughts, likes, dislikes whatever to your heart's content. Sorry to disappoint you, but i won't keep them coming, at least not on this thread.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 9th 2010, 01:44
@Andrew, you're familiar I'm sure with the iconic laughingsad masks of the theatre since theatre began. C'est la vie! Tragic-comic, ups and downs, life's-a-bitch-and-then-you-die sort of thing. The world's a stage and I'll make a fool of myself if I want to (you'd be surprised - as if you didn't know! - how many supposedly serious discussions would be better placed on the sawdust in a circus ring). With me compereing in my wide trousers a` la turque - you should have seen me at the London Gay Parade last Sat. - the serious is absurd, the absurd VERY serious.
You mentioned the word charmer. Reminded me of the snake-charmer I met in Fez. We charmed each other - if you see what mean - and I insisted the snake stayed in its garden enclosure. It was envious. It was under the bedroom window and I could hear it hissing and spitting. rattling its cage. After a quick orange and black coffee breakfast I ran without saying goodbye to the reptile. I met the charmer later on, buying more oranges and more coffee for my return visit/s.
I drink low-or-no-alcohol beer where available. I'm a good boy, I am.
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 8th 2010, 19:59
@ XUEREB
"Don't you think you're living a bit too vicariously, Farrugia?"
Don't you know that we are on the THEATRE OF THE ABSURD?
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 8th 2010, 18:38
@ XUEREB
There you go again, spinning riddles as if there is no tomorrow; I am afraid you befuddle me completely - i have to admit a particular aversion to parables with which i am not familiar (Morocco - snake charmers - refusal to be charmed - sensing presences - what became of the charmer : did you eat him Hannibal Lecter style?). Makes one a bit cautious about standing you a coffee, and anyway i prefer beer and the Premier has never been my scene. More of a pub person really.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 8th 2010, 17:37
I was in Morocco once. There was a snake-charmer. The snake sensed my presence and refused to be charmed. But I was very charmed, very, for the length of my stay. I wonder what became of him, the charmer? Does one get a pension when one stops charming? Is it all in the lap of the gods, like a betasselled table-dancer?
Joe Xuereb
Jul 8th 2010, 17:26
Andrew, I am unannoyable I'm afraid. So, hagame el favor de serrar la boca (only joking of course).
Listen, first you asked me who was wearing the 'mad' hat (so unprofessional that word, so 'street-language), you or I. Then you asked me if I was a censurato here on the Times pages. Don't you think you're living a bit too vicariously Farrugia? Life is so hyperbolically immense that we should live it and not dally in others' back pockets.
One day we'll have a coffee together - at Cafe` Premier. A while back I set up a tryst with one Debattista, known to your good self on Joe Borg's blog. But she stood me up. Or maybe she espied me from behind the kiosk and she ran for her life. You wouldn't stand me up would you Andrew?
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 8th 2010, 14:22
@ XUEREB
Delightful, amusing and charming (though not a charmer unless...) as ever. But i must say you disappoint me at times: "speaking foreign - if forked - tongues"; now you know very well that the forked fiend, in whatever guise, shape or form, is my everlasting enemy. And i need to make it clear, absolutely, that you and i will argue, disagree and spit fiery curses at each other, but i do not regard you as either a barbarian or my everlasting enemy; you would be infinitely surprised to know that, albeit rarely and imperceptibly, "the twain can meet" (out of context, or rather in a NEW context). Hasta la vista (couldn't resist it, just to annoy you).
Joe Xuereb
Jul 8th 2010, 13:34
Errata: 'put' should have read putti of course. Obvious to art-lovers but baffling to dabblers.
Farrugia, at risk of repeating myself - the penny will drop eventually - we are all afflicted by the human condition/demons/existential angst, you name it! We choose different ways to deal with it. How I do it is not anybody's business. By the same token, how YOU do it, likewise. I only respond when I am attacked. And when that happens, it's a veritable open wormy can, a Panda's box. For my readers that is. Argue with an unknown (as in, because you're not in my position), known (as in, because I have no hidden agendas, honest cards on the table) quantity, and you won't know what hit you. But worry not, the custodian angel will protect you (remember the two angelic kids crossing a very fragile foot-bridge. Very impressive, very indoctrinating).
Farrugia, never mind the barbarians who, in the end, Malta heart. Worry and do something about the barbarians who have no allegiance to this tiny rock but will occupy it and annihilate all it stands for. I think you know what I mean. Yo're a teacher speaking foreign - if forked - tongues.
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 8th 2010, 13:29
@ XUEREB
"The problem with the old masters is that their subject-matter is irrelevant today".
I was surprised by this comment, as i feel that a cultured person like you would not dismiss a Shakespeare or a Dante so lightly. But could be that you are somehow correct, in the sense that many today are quite incapable of even skimming the surface meaning of their works. Thus, it is like what Yusef said in Greene's "The Heart of the Matter": about "throwing away the pearl". Or, to put it more crudely and perhaps, vulgarly, it is like giving a pig a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh; it will instinctively devour it without any realisation of its genial artistic value. Thinking of pigs makes me recall what Fabrizio De Andre once said about human beings: "un porco laureato in matematica pura"; could have been his pessimistic and nihilistic view of humanity. Who knows?
Joe Xuereb
Jul 8th 2010, 12:17
This is important so I had to come back. Important because I say so.
Farrugia, I often refer to 'my demons'. And you say, 'your words, remember'. Of course I remember. I say it often enough. But make no mistake, my demons are everybody's demons. Nobody is exempt. Our demons are god-given and it would be an unfair god who gave demons to some and not to others. No Andrew, we're in this god-given cesspool called life, we're in it together - sink or swim. But ultimately we all sink because we are mortals. The best way to deal with this cesspool is to deal with the here and now. Keeping one's nostrils above the stench and hoping for a scented hereafter is an option that appeals to fewer and fewer people every day. Abroad at any rate. As usual, of course, Malta is different. But even there......
People may delude themselves that they are not part of the cesspool. The cesspool, the demons however, are intrinsic to the inescapable human condition. Break those straps!!
Joe Xuereb
Jul 8th 2010, 12:04
The old-master painter/craftsmen - that's all they were - achieved a lot building on knowledge and observation of what went on before. Who can deny that the application of dark-on-light-on-dark as applied by Caravaggio the criminal is sublime if not divine. The technique lives on and will continue (ask any photographer who does portraiture in B&W). The problem with the old masters is that their subject matter is irrelevant today. I mean all those feathered creatures floating about, all those naked cherubic overfed put doing all kinds of acrobatics without safety-nets - and all those paedophiles ogling them. No, it wouldn't work now. Can still be done (big time in Malta) and I dare say it will draw a struggling bunch of admirers. Get me out of here! Hearing voices was seen as the meddling divine in the past. These days we know different.
Very interesting comment Farrugia, very telling. Of course it makes sense to you because you are using your yardstick. People need to learn that value judgements are just that. They only make sense to the strapped judge thinking in his box.
I hope you're started to work on your rage Andrew. It's a soul-killer.
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 8th 2010, 00:26
@XUEREB
As you say, teaching is no big deal; in fact going by what we see, watch, hear or read today one gets the impression that the barbarians are upon us, ie. quacks with a gossipy or half-baked kind of imbibing at the dulcet founts of knowledge who are partial to the Nelson/Nealson/Neilson/ whatever scribbler and who have no sense of decorum in art and literature as bequeathed to us by the old masters. As for paucity of ideas and thoughts of great pith and substance, once again you are correct; a quick browse at the tedious and repetitive comments posted by the usual suspects provides sufficient evidence; evidence of an arrogant, soulless, and distressed state of being. You are right, a case of imploding identities or rather a destructive, nihilistic, aimless counting of days till the great pop which brings their "struggle with their inner demons" (your words, remember) to an end. Well, at least i may say that i am still enchanted at being strapped/ tethered to the hope of such a stupendous idea as transcendence. Not much, but hey, it is better than having none at all; meanwhile, i enjoy stimulating tete-a-tetes with amusing content-filled characters.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 7th 2010, 22:41
Of course it's unacceptable to tell anybody to shut up. However, it is an act of kindness on my part to advise people who obviously know nothing about art to take a back seat and listen.
Some such bright spark suggested KZT start painting in churches to prove his artistic mettle. There was art, and how!! before christianity and there will be art after it has petered out, finally. That said, art is not only of the sacred type. There is also the profane. And often they overlap, how often they overlap! Henri Matisse http://www.artpromote.com/henri_matisse.shtml spent a lifetime painting luscious female nudes, odalisques (reclining Arab beauties in exotic garb), some of them beautifully bloated according to Arab taste, and much more. Towards the end of his life a was commissioned a execute stained-glass panels in a chapel high in the hills in the South of France where the light particularly enhances his creation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapelle_du_Rosaire_de_Vence.
Ah my Matisse, so often profane, so divinely inspired often. He died making paper cutouts on his death-bed. Somebody wanted to call the viaticum. He asked for a sharper pair of scissors. And not for censoring anything.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 7th 2010, 12:55
@Farrugia, forget that you're a teacher for a moment (I was teaching straight out of high-school when I was sixteen, so it's no big deal). These comments here are not about spelling and grammar, they're about content (were it otherwise, I wouldn't stand a chance).
Many highly-intelligent and research-crazy individuals comment here and elsewhere (I could name names). But they make it obvious that underlying their thought is this strapping to an old book. Once their reader becomes aware of that (so easy!) they have no content. They have nothing to say. They are strapped. Over a barrel. Or tethered to a broken column and going nowhere fast. And living in utter dread of anything that questions their imploding identity. As the principal said to the pious, but oh-so-misguided, principled.
Caroline Said
Jul 7th 2010, 11:45
@E.Muscat: with due respect, what a load of bull to imply that if "degerate" art were banned, the arts would more authentically reflect the balance in life. Firstly, where is this balance in "life"-please show me. Is there balance in the justice system? No, its arbitrary. Is there balance in politics? No, its heavily tilted twoards the money. In my opinion, the result of what you're asking for-the banning of anything degenerate in the arts-would create its own imbalance. Who decides what is degenerate anyway? Wasnt it George Bernard Shaw who is quoted as saying the Old Testament should be banned because of its records of debauched behaviour?
For you to opine that only church art is the real art, then you have made yourself a self-styled art critic and possibly a far inferior one. I suggest you collect just 6 months worth of newpaper cuttings and compare them with the content of church art and degenerate modern art and theatre and conclude which portrays real life more accurately.
Karl Consiglio
Jul 7th 2010, 11:16
E. Muscat,
I don't deny the existence of balance, but that don't mean life is necessarily about balance no. More often then not life's unfairness and lack of balance leaves us awestruck. Trying to find balance above the chaos, now that's another story.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 7th 2010, 01:24
2)And 'Notti di Cabiria', Fellini's 50s seminal work, teeming with whores and other colourful characters. Of course America copied it and gave us the trashy musical 'Sweet Charity' where the whores were reduced to a row of dancing girls - very clean, very American. Why is it that Catholic Italian cinema does better verismo in black and white than America ever could? Why! even Orthodox Greece gave us Never on Sunday and Stella - one cannot hope for more than a suffering heart-of-gold whore than my Melina. The starring did not corrupt her. She went on to be Minister of Culture and endlessly campaigned for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens. Google Elgin Marbles E. Muscat. Could be an education. Why! you might even come across a reference to the bloated Mercouri. You remember Melina E., winking at you from the silver screen?
What's worrying about all this is that in Malta we talk about people becoming scrupulous to a degree. They become very censorious to the point of paranoia, ever inward-looking. Not very healthy. Hospitals in UK abound with patients suffering from religious mania. Patients on Maltese psychiatric wards would not be much different I shouldn't wonder.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 7th 2010, 01:03
1) Tanya, I've a bone to pick with you koz I'm a stickler for detail. I am talking of course about 'your broken columns for props'. The columns are indeed broken now if they exist at all. But at the time of the plays, those them columns were as white and as pristine and as unbroken as any column on a four-tiered wedding cake. But we won't fight over this. We have a greater catastrophe on our hands.
E.Muscat. I am tempted to wear my 'prop' rubber Marigold gloves when addressing you. You are an irritant.
Emptiness apparent is someone spouting about something that, pitifully evident, they know nothing about.
The Italian 'Ossessione' with Clara Calamai was 50s Italy, visceral and included the homosexual slant of the male protagonist. Two much sanitized Hollywood versions appeared much later. From about the 1930s censorship was in vigore but not in Catholic Italy.
http://www.hollywoodmoviememories.com/articles/hollywood-history/hays-code-brings-censorship-motion.php
Not forgetting 1950s Italy 'Ossessione' with Clara Calamai with heavy reference to the male protagonis'ts homosexuality. Hollywood had to wait many years for its 'Postman always rings twice' with the over-glamourized Lana Turner, of course, all pointy-chest under trademark tight sweater, and later, Jessica Lange.
cont.
Joe Xuereb
Jul 6th 2010, 23:56
Thank you KZT.
I have commented about that other great Strauss masterpiece (besides our Elektra), namely the non-fictional Salome. This is biblical and every evil imaginable is there (see: YouTube - Maria Ewing/soprano/dancer as Salome - child-princess, a biblical Lolita. My comments appeared according to whim yet nobody commented on this Salome. Or Carmen, or Tosca, or the pure Mimi, or Manon, or Violetta a loose woman, adulteresses all. Not forgetting Mascagni's prize-winning opera, composed in Catholic Italy a century ago,with its anger, envy, child out of wedlock, murder. Set in Sicily and production that any Maltese village could double for. I've had not comments. Yet, using the judge's measuring stick, all these works of genius should be banned and burned. Go on! I dare anybody to ban Salome at least. Of course conservative old fogeys might see Salome in London and come out spitting 'disgusting' but secretly relishing the still-fresh memory (plus frisson if it is still possible with a little help from the divine?) of the shedding of those seven diaphanous veils. Oh ye hypocrites.!
Andrew Farrugia
Jul 6th 2010, 22:51
@ a montebello
Ahem! If you wish to "have your own principALs" i am afraid you will have very little freedom to choose, particularly as principals have a tendency to set rules and put themselves broadly about to ensure that said rules are followed. If, on the other hand, you mean principLEs, then .... then ...... you should blame the gremlins.
Tanja Cilia
Jul 6th 2010, 22:14
Let me see whether I grasped the situation correctly and completely. If I plagiarise a Greek play, and dress my actors in denim and funky jewellery, set the action in Malta, but leave the script intact save for a couple of edits, I am hauled over the coals... perhaps because no one would be familiar with the original, dare I say it? If, on the other hand, I ask Costumes to provide them with a peplos or a chiton apiece, and use broken columns for props, I am hailed as the Reviver of Classical theatre. Oeidipus complexes, matricides, fratricides, violence and other broken Commandments aside - what's the difference?
Steve Sant
Jul 6th 2010, 21:56
E.Muscat and all those who have given up trying. Sometimes it is easier to criticise, and it is usually people like you who create this emptiness. It is those who have given up, and are just wallowing in self pity, who degenerate. Our children are brought up to enjoy art. Art comes in many shapes and sizes, it could be a painting, singing or any other sort of creativity. True, today most of art is based on making money, and lots of it. Unfortunately that is your frustration, this rubbish makes millions and yet the real artist goes unnoticed. Who's fault is that?. So before you throw a tantrum and call everyone unbalanced. Consider this, you are but one, and out there are 6 billion plus. What is right?
A Mangion
Jul 6th 2010, 19:41
@ E Muscat - what credentials do you have to disagree with what KZT said in his article. We need more people like KZT in this country to enable us and our children and future generations to know what art (including drama) is all about. Keep up the good work, Kenneth!!!
E.Muscat
Jul 6th 2010, 20:13
What credentials does KZT have:admiration for Jeff Koons? What credentials are needed except good sense and an appreciation of what is good in art and science!
Andrew Borg-Cardona
Jul 6th 2010, 19:29
Daniel Mercieca
Jul 6th 2010, 20:40
kenneth, we will only read your articles after we see your paintings in a church :)
Karl Consiglio
Jul 6th 2010, 18:27
@E. Muscat,
Who on earth told you that life is about balance, a weighing scale?
E.Muscat
Jul 6th 2010, 19:44
It is what babies learn when they start walking:if you understand that something can harm you, try to do it carefully!It is also the balance between bad and good.
Freedom in the western world has brought rubbish to be worth millions while the asians smile and wonder how easy it is that the west destroys itself.
E.Muscat
Jul 6th 2010, 17:38
To persevere in praising and wanting degenerate art is absurd :real life is about balance,nothing more. Kids are raised on cartoon heroes; blasphemy in drama is called freedom of expression, gluttony is praised, and now the age of austerity is on top of us:the lies of the western world are coming home to roost! Why is the sacrifice and toil required to produce a great work of art or of science never mentioned? Self styled art critics pour platitudes about meaningless 'works of art' :these are all lies to fill our lives with emptiness. The real works of art are things such as our churches built by perspiring men and not by bloated critics. I also remember a few films which used to teach people about real life, not just perversion:but now hollywood has lost its soul and it just regurgitates ' new ' versions of old films, not knowing what to do next?Vulgarity is the answer,or blasphemy if you are really desperate:is this the kind of balance that we want in life?
a montebello
Jul 6th 2010, 17:49
You are totally free to think the way you do, and your beliefs and principals are admirable. But don't make them mine. Let me have my own beliefs, and my own principals. Allow me to get shocked and disgusted and enraged and, please, allow me to make my own choices. this is what the entire issue is about. Freedom to chose.
Sabrina Borda
Jul 6th 2010, 20:10
Sir, your fantastic argument here is showing just how in actual fact life is not balanced at all. Your comments are what tip the balance of any rational grounds.
Karl Consiglio
Jul 6th 2010, 10:17
For those of you who have not seen Tornatore's Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, this article contains spoilers.