Think you know your neighbours? Think again. Actor Andre Agius tells Jo Caruana why you can never be too sure who’s in your midst – as highlighted in the hit play, The People Next Door.
Do you ever really know the people who live next door? The little old lady with the cats, for instance. What’s she up to? And what about the man upstairs whose late night furniture moving has raised an eyebrow or two?
I have my own experience of odd neighbours. Back in the UK, when I lived on the first floor of a run-down grey-brick apartment block, our neighbour in Flat 4 stood out among the weirdos.
He seemed to only ever come out at night and, when he did, he would scurry in and out ushering huge cardboard boxes through his front door.
It’s safe to say that he creeped us out and we avoided him like the plague for fear of ending up in one of those boxes.
But, I did get my comeuppance when I locked myself out of my apartment one day and he instantly showed his true colours by bringing me cups of tea on the stairs. But then again, what did that prove?
Not knowing your neighbours is the quirky theme of MellowDrama’s latest production – which opened on Friday at the Blue Box Theatre in Msida.
It’s a laugh-out-loud kind of production, but its dark undertones also give audiences something to think about.
The play is set in the wake of September 11, 2001. The world seemed to have stopped turning for most people, but not for protagonist Nigel – who blissfully continues his life of ignorance enveloped by his X Box, his TV and his spliff.
That is, of course, until a mave-rick cop on a covert mission puts Nigel back in touch with his estranged brother Karim and into a hot bed of potential terrorist activity at the local mosque.
“This is essentially a story about what happens when someone else’s global problem becomes your local one,” says young actor Andre Agius, who is playing the high-energy role of Nigel.
The playwright behind the People Next Door, Scottish-born Henry Adams, wrote the show in just six weeks at the beginning of the second Gulf War, at a time when terror suspects were being rounded up in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“It touches brilliantly on the prejudices we all have, but weaves that in with plenty of sparkling, knockabout humour,” Agius says.
“And it’s all mixed in with a healthy dose of cynicism that I have no doubt Maltese audiences will find hilarious.”
Agius himself, though still in his early 20s, has certainly made an impression, with both a local and international CV to be proud of. He is well-known for his dynamic interpretation of Man in Unifaun Theatre’s Tender Nepalm last season, which transferred to the Edinburgh Fringe and received good reviews.
The play touches brilliantly on the prejudices we all have, but weaves that in with plenty of sparkling, knockabout humour
More recently, Agius also played a main role on CBS’s eagerly-anticipated miniseries The Dovekeepers, which premieres internationally next month.
He worked across from esteemed actors like Cote de Pablo (from popular US detective show NCIS), Kathryn Prescott (Finding Carter, Skins), Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards, Manhattan) and Diego Boneta (Rock of Ages).
“It was the stuff dreams are made of,” grins Agius, who, though already enjoying a measure of success himself, has kept his feet firmly on the ground.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked on set and saw all those actors I had admired from afar and suddenly I was working with them.”
But, despite that high-flying foray onto a global screen, the young actor is no less enamoured by the local theatre scene – which he has been a part of since childhood.
“It’s such a pleasure to be working with actors Marylu Coppini and Alan Paris, as well as director Steve Casaletto,” he says.
“I have always looked up to them as theatre veterans and working opposite them makes me feel like I have come a long way.”
He stresses how much the team has enjoyed the process of putting this show together. “There’s been a lot of laughter in our rehearsal room as the script is hilarious, but we’ve also worked very hard to capture the serious moments that really distinguish this play from so many other black comedies.
“The beauty of this play lies within its message that we should not classify people by their stereotypes and that message works perfectly within an intimate theatre such as the Blue Box at M Space.”
As for Agius’s own neighbours, I wonder if they’ve helped to inspire his interpretation of Nigel? “Absolutely not!” he says. “I live in a very peaceful neighbourhood and have never encountered anything remotely similar to what goes on in the People Next Door. Everyone has always been lovely, and very normal too.”
Ah, but can he really be sure…
The People Next Door runs at the Blue Box Theatre, M Space, Msida, tonight and on February 20, 21 and 22. Tickets are available online.
www.mellowdrama.com.mt