The Manoel Theatre’s and Talenti’s production of Il-Kuluri Tal-Perlini touts itself as a thriller based on Ġużè Chetcuti’s Imħuħ Morda and staged to commemorate the centenary of Chetcuti’s birth in 1914.

As director and scriptwriter, Zep Camilleri explains in the director’s note on the programme he was asked to both adapt and update Chetcuti’s original play, which he found outdated and not very relevant to the “digital world of the 21st century”.

Overall, the cast handled Camilleri’s text admirably, particularly Marvic Cordina and Mario Spiteri (Snitz).Their characters, although secondary to the main plot, helped lighten the otherwise overly-melodramatic mood set by the other characters.

But in their case, you could sense that Camilleri was writing with these two specific actors in mind. Cordina possesses a fine singing voice as well as a strong stage presence and Camilleri used her to the full to underline the storyline at various points with snippets of song.

On the other hand, Spiteri’s affable fool served as a welcome contrast to the more sombre elements of the play.

Spiteri may be accused of playing similar versions of the same character in different productions, but few actors on the local stage possess better comic timing.

The main plot revolves around the disintegrating relationship between an author, his wife and a psychiatrist who is also a mutual ‘friend’ of the ailing couple.

The action is entirely set out-side a tavern in the main square of a seaside village during carnival. On the first night of the three performances, the part of the author was played by Joseph Galea rather than Mario Micallef, who was indisposed due to illness.

Galea played the author as a cocky and unpleasant character, his male pride wounded by his suspicions of his wife’s unfaithfulness.

Antonella Galea Loffreda played the author’s wife constantly teetering on the brink of madness, although the script never made it clear what was driving her heightened emotions.

Anthony Ellul played the doctor skilfully, with an equal measure of passion and sagacity. Yet, his character was underdeveloped by the scriptwriter and ultimately served as little more than a literary device to add a twist to the dénouement of the final scene.

Camilleri’s adaptation still came across as a rather antiquated script, both in terms of style and content

Elsewhere, Larissa Bonaci played the troubled daughter of the couple, constantly in search of answers about her identity, with Clive Piscopo her well meaning, but ill-suited, boyfriend.

Camilleri also added the character of the author’s sister to the play, a part ably played by Monika Attard.

Her character added little to the story, apart from her recurrent questioning of the real motives behind her brother’s actions.

Camilleri’s direction of the action was overall tight and clear. The carnival atmosphere was a useful backdrop to the plot’s darker goings-on and served to highlight the themes of masks, cover-ups and deceit.

Moreover, it allowed the director to blend in colour and song into the production.

However, his various attempts to accentuate dramatic moments by suddenly changing the lights and bringing in a masked spectre dressed in black (visible only to the audience) – who walked onstage for a few seconds and walked off again as the lights changed back – was risible.

Similarly, his attempt to use incidental mood music over the dramatic moments of dialogue were completely misjudged and had the actors struggling to play the moment convincingly while adjusting their vocal projection to the music.

The latter was neither well-balanced in terms of volume nor appropriate in terms of mood.

One of the best things about the production was, by far, Marco Bartolo’s set. Not only did it look good with a high level of detail but it also evoked the correct setting for the action and gave the director a variety of entrances, exits and levels to keep the action interesting.

While I must admit that I am not familiar with the original, Camilleri’s adaptation still came across as a rather antiquated script, both in terms of style and content.

Simply dressing up the actors in their own clothes and introducing a mobile phone into the script does not automatically make it relevant and up to date. It certainly needed more edge and tension to qualify as a thriller.

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