One of the theatre offerings of this year’s ŻiguŻajg Festival involved a lively dramatisation, meant for young children, of the Grimm folk tale The Fisherman and his Wife, bearing the title Rondinella.
This very successful offering was from the Drama Unit, directed by Philip Stilon, who also plays with verve the Narrator of the proceedings.
Played in the round theatre at St James Cavalier, the production has the charm of the utmost simplicity and gains considerably from using audience (mainly children) participation in the creation of sound effects. In fact, the many children present had a great time when I saw the production on Monday, miming unruly waves, creating the sound of strong winds and the whispering of leaves in a forest – and, of course, using their knees as drums on which they beat with great glee.
The only attempt at providing scenery was to have a huge open book upstage, the pages of which are turned by the Narrator to indicate the various magical turns of fortune the two human characters, the Fisherman (Dominic Said) and his wife, Isabel (Valerie Blow), encounter during the play. Michael Mifsud’s designs on these pages strike a mean between familiar story book illustrations and realistic depiction.
The plot is a simple one. The Fisherman’s querulous and eternally-dissatisfied wife gives him a dressing-down when he tells her he has caught a large flounder (rondinella in Maltese) that talks and tells him she is a princess and, since she is not really good to eat, would he please throw her back?
This, the surprised Fisherman does, but meets the ire of his wife Isabel when he tells her this. She makes him promise to go back, find the fish and wring a promise out of her to change the hovel in which they live into a decently-furnished little house. The Fisherman manages to do this but his wife’s greed exceeds all bounds.
She sends him back again and again to get Rondinella to give her a large castle instead, then make her a Queen and finally (and surprisingly) to make her pope. This reminds us that many popes of the past were very different from our Pope Francis, who eschews wealth and luxury. Isabel’s greed has clearly exceeded all bounds, but for her even this is not enough.
She now wants the power to control the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, but when the Fisherman asks Rondinella shamefacedly for this new gift, the fish replies: “Why don’t you make a wish?” to which he replies: “I want to see Isabel happy.”
The granting of this wish sees him and Isabel living happily in their original hovel by the sea. This parable is one to be learned and followed by many of us, living in what has become a disgusting consumer’s world.
The simple plot, the pleasure of the young audience’s participating in the storytelling, pleasant background music and, above all, the strong and unfussy performances of the small cast made for a delightfully pleasant production that can be enjoyed by adults perhaps even more than by the kids.
Dominic Said’s honest fisherman, who loves even his hen-pecking wife, together with Blow’s vinegary Isabel, who greatly enjoys the moments when she appears wearing a royal crown and a pope’s tall tiara, are the amusing core round which the plot is built.
Marcelle Theuma, taking a holiday from her elaborately directed production, gives voice to Rondinella, a large puppet she carries round. I have already commented on Stilon’s Narrator, a kindly figure who makes sure all of us know exactly what is happening and directs the kids to participate enthusiastically.