Given permission to misbehave

The Teatru Rjal Company’s Maltese language pantomime has filled seats at the Catholic Institue for over a decade, and Tarżan, mal-Erbat Irjieħ was by all accounts their wackiest show yet.

Although I consider myself a panto viewing veteran, this is only the second time I’ve attended the Catholic Institute’s Christmas offering – it was very much a case of enjoying an alternative take on panto, plumbing for the reassuring seam of silliness that runs deep in all festive entertainment at this time of year.

Directed by Augusto Cardinali, the show’s story is built around a picaresque journey through various vignettes. We see Tarzan, his monkey friends, the indomitable Dame and her eccentric entourage travel around the world in search of the lion responsible for eating the Dame’s husband, while escaping the clutches of a disgruntled Arriva rep (Eileen Micallef) and her turncoat side-kick, Klejtin (Mark Tonna). Rather than traditionally nasty, wicked but ultimately ineffectual, Micallef isn’t a villain so much as a self-centered and morally ambiguous airhead.

Mark Tonna’s character (a pro­vincial hunter with an accent almost as thick as he is) begins the show as a member of the Dame’s staff, only to be seduced to the baddies’ side, then somehow redeems himself and ends up arm-in-arm with the Dame for the finale – which features a double wedding, sing-alongs and yet more dance numbers.

The set itself is fantastic and looks like something out of Rainforest Café, all very carefully constructed and beautifully painted.

Ronald Briffa is on form as Mowgli, delighting the audience with his zany antics. Hector Bruno’s infamously kitsch Dame is hilarious, even when the act turned rather blue (in ways he might not have got away with at the MFCC or Manoel).

Ina Robinich plays the Dame’s no-nonsense daughter, and Tarzan (who, as the principal character, is conspicuously absent and a little lacklustre) is played by Mario Spiteri. Robinich and Laura Bruno (appearing in a variety of roles during the show) both have excellent voices and nearly took the roof off, belting a string of catchy tunes.

Yada Dance Company supplied visually arresting and skilled performers, a welcome break from the frenetic activity on stage. The male dancers are especially talented, working together with their female counterparts and inhabiting their own show within the show.

Dominating the performance with his powerful presence, J Anvil is an excellent King of the Cannibals. A senseless bit of fun with just the right amount of beastliness and comedy, it is the most successful vignette – but for sheer strange­ness, one scene set in an alternative history Third Reich (with Toni Busuttil impersonating a hysterical ‘Adolf Hyster’) is hard to beat.

Although it did feel over-exten­ded (at nearly four hours long), Tarżan, mal-Erbat Irjieħ succeeds in spreading a thin story thickly by adding endless details, sub-stories, plot asides and musical interludes.

Tarżan is a sprawling derangement of a pantomime, impressive for its scope but missing a keystone to prop up so unlikely an edifice.

By trying to please kids, parents and grandparents, the audience is left with a head full of one liners, thinly disguised smut and the memory of songs – individual elements that never come together in an entirely satisfying way.

We may long for a time when people were innocent enough to be surprised by barely concealed suggestions of naughtiness, but all we’re giggling at these days is the pastiche – a nostalgic look that dulls the razor edge of satire and casts a shadow over camp farce.

It was ultimately difficult to locate the heart of this performance (it’s certainly not in the insipid double romance).

The show is full of raucousness and charm and endlessly circling spirals of fun – but it never achieves the kind of sublime silliness that is a Christmas pantomime’s crowning glory.