A dated slice of realism

Theatre
Il-Kerrejja
Manoel Theatre

Ġużè Chetcuti’s drama was staged for the first time in 1963 at the Manoel Theatre by the Malta Drama League. It was again produced by Talenti in 1994, a performance I had watched. The present production is, more or less, Talenti’s revival of the 1994 version, this time co-produced with the Manoel Theatre. In his programme-note, director Mario Micallef says that three of the characters are played by the same actors who had played them 17 years ago, and confesses some misgiving at having to abandon the role of Mattija to step into the director’s shoes.

The play revolves around a number of characters who occupy a tenement house during the war. It is character-driven and, although many things happen, the plot still feels rather thin. It is encumbered by heavy dialogue and repetitious descriptions or narrations.

Mr Micallef writes that a revival of this play is opportune for those who were too young to see the play in 1994. If young people are his target-audience, he should have found ways by which to significantly increase the work’s appeal.

I left the theatre feeling I had witnessed something stale and outdated, with hardly any resonance to the life we lead today. The characters look, speak, move, think in a manner which is totally remote and disengaging. This is rather odd and ironic since Chetcuti is considered a pioneer of realism in Maltese literature. I suspect that an already laborious script is not made any better by the unimaginative direction.

Actually, there seemed to have been an attempt to introduce a major development to the original Chetcuti plot. I do not recall whether this was already present in Talenti’s first production. We are given to understand that some time in the course of the play the aged widower Mattija rapes and impregnates the mentally-unstable girl Kruċa. Whereas Chetcuti had ended his play with the new year’s celebration during a moment’s respite from air-raids, this performance ends with Mattija rushing out of the tenement after his crime has been discovered, leaving us somehow unsure of what had really happened. The Mattija-Kruċa situation could have made the play more interesting had it been better interwoven into the action, with the director working around the original lines to build up an increasing tension between the two characters. As it is, apart from the sudden discovery just before the end, we are given only one suggestion towards the beginning that Mattija could be hatching up some dark plans for the girl.

The majority of the actors try their best to bring the characters to life. However, from the moment they step on stage the characterisation feel mostly predictable. Perhaps Michael Tabone’s Mattija is the only interesting one of the lot. What makes him interesting was the ambivalence. We are never quite sure whether he is pathetic, funny, or bad. I liked him especially in the shelter scene, particularly the way he delivered the lines about wishing to be crazy but realising that he cannot be. Indeed, the loss of sanity seems to be a major theme in the whole play.

Ninette Micallef and Mary Rose Mallia both return to the roles they had played in the earlier production, two women who constantly breathe down one another’s neck but ally up to gossip against the rest.

Ms Micallef is the usual confident actress who seems to portray all her parts so effortlessly and unblemished. Ms Mallia’s role is also a typical one for the actress. Philip Mizzi and Guido Fenech are the husbands, and although their role were small, both are enjoyable.

I usually like Maryanne Fenech and admire her for the impressive personality and stage-presence. However, I feel that as Ġakkina, the women with a rough past who is new to the tenement, she is miscast. The part is largely a serious one, and although Ms Fenech manages to produce some chuckles, she fails to bring out the seriousness of the role.

Another reliable veteran, Michael Scortino, plays Patri Beneditt. This was a predictable rendering of what could have been an interesting and somehow topical role of a humane but censorious priest.

Of the younger generation of actors, Michelle Zerafa seems to be genuinely struggling to make the character of Pina authentic and real, but only partly succeeds in creating a believable character. Alan Fenech plays her boy-friend painter David, and has some good moments when he tries to convince the priest that there is nothing desecrating about his art. Kruċa is played by Moira Muscat, and although there is some sensitivity in this portrayal, the part is the one which feels most tedious.

The production is also hampered by a set which rather than evoking a realistic picture of what a city kerrejja was like, makes it look as if we were in a slice from a Neapolitan crib. One must say that it is often lighted effectively. On the other hand, many of the sound effects are muffled. The toys used by the children look too modern. And how can blind Ewkaristu be always heard playing two violins simultaneously?