The satirical show will be performed in November and December.

Chinese company CSTOR, which specialises in hazardous waste storage, intended to invest some €250 million in Malta, the Maltese media was told in a press call.

But relax – no nuclear waste will be brought to the island as the event was a marketing spoof by the team behind Bla Kondixin, the satirical show that will be performed in November and December.

The team went to great lengths to make the press call look genuine, even creating a website and e-mail address that displayed information about the fictional company in Chinese and in broken English.

Upon receiving the press call on Thursday, Times of Malta contacted a number of government entities as well as Malta Enterprise and the Chinese Embassy, all of whom knew nothing of the supposed investment.

It was then determined that it was a ploy by Bla Kondixin.

We wanted to create something credible but atrocious

However, disbelieving journalists wandered into St James Cavalier in Valletta yesterday to be greeted by lawyer and actor Luke Dalli and a Chinese man, who posed as a representative of the company’s chairman.

They were soon replaced by two Bla Kondixin actors who frolicked about naked, with only a towel covering their modesty.

The towels were embroidered with the words Bla Kondixin: Nikxfu Kollox (uncovering everything).

“There were people who panicked,” producer Michael Fenech laughed afterwards.

“We even had [Economy Minister] Chris Cardona phoning us from New York to check what it was all about. There was the risk that the media or bloggers would upload the press call as truth – but I don’t believe anyone did.”

Bla Kondixin, he continued, was in its 14th year and one of the challenges was keeping it fresh.

“Chinese is the flavour of the month. We wanted to create something credible (such as foreign investment) but also atrocious (the hazardous waste element),” he grinned.

The shows will be staged at MFCC between November 28 and 30, and December 3 and 7.