Ix-Xitan Kunjomu Malti

Mario Philip Azzopardi’s new play Ix-Xitan Kunjomu Malti, staged by Staġun Teatru Malti at the Manoel Theatre, shows him still pursuing sensational topics and colourful methods of staging.

The title should hint broadly as his new theme of diabolical possession, which develops without subtlety.

It builds up from act one where an exorcist tries unsuccessfully to drive evil spirits out of two teenagers, with an abundance of distorted voices, aggressive acts by the possessed kids and visual events, such as the transmutation of a religious glass painting into a diabolical one and the equally mysterious change of a large cross into an upside down position.

Then there is a second act in which the devil himself in human form takes possession of the stage, scores victories over the exorcist and comes near reaching his aim of preparing the way for an antichrist who will rule over a world from which belief in God has disappeared.

Both acts take place in a nuns’ convent in Malta, apparently built in a neo-gothic style. Dun Ġwann, the exorcist (Roderick Vassallo), has been asked to exorcise a teenage girl, Clara (Shelby Aquilina), who has been brought over from Scotland after the spirit possessing her is discovered to be speaking in Maltese.

Also in attendance is a Maltese psychiatrist, Agius (Mikhail Basmadjian) who is sceptical about diabolical possession and tries to cure the girl using scientific methods.

Agius and Dun Ġwann discuss another case of possession, that of the teenager Kevin with whom the exorcist has had scant success and who is being held in hospital in tight security.

Clara, accompanied by her Scottish father, Mr Leister (Paul Portelli) and family physician Dr Spears (Polly March), soon shows her violent hostility towards Dun Ġwann and to-wards the convent’s Mother superior (Marvic Cordina).

The possessed girl speaks in an echoing and slightly distorted male voice and the spirit or spirits within her reach a climax of hostility when they cause not just her but simulacra of her to leap high in the air, a scene weakened by the visibility of the wires manipulating the bodies.

Azzopardi’s direction has clearly paid much attention to the use of technology and to efficient stage management

Incidentally, I was struck by the fact that the various possession scenes in this act seemed to be regarded by quite a few audience members as funny, eliciting some raucous laughter.

The entry of Kevin (Jamie Cardona) leads not just to more devilish jinks but also to the surrendering of the Mother Superior to the devil’s party and at the act’s end of a mysterious personage who soon makes himself known as Satan himself.

Played skilfully by John Suda as a suave and brimmingly self-confident character, the Devil dominates the second act.

Right at the beginning of this act, he addresses the audience, show-ing himself to be treacherously comic as well as sceptical about Maltese religious beliefs.

This prepares us for his dastardly behaviour during the rest of the act. What he does is to show contempt for the power of Dun Ġwann, whom he reduces to a demoralised wreck and to unveil his grand plan, starting by making the possessed teenagers have sex.

He then makes Clara stand on the altar dominated by the upturned cross and explains in great detail the progress of the sperm inside her leading to a conception that will eventually produce the antichrist.

This grand plan is thwarted sensationally, however, when Mr Leister avenges the impregnation of his daughter by Kevin and Dun Ġwann breaks out of his sense of defeat by performing an act that, while being utterly unpriestly, will save God’s earth from the future antichrist.

Those members of the audience who had laughed loudly in the first act were largely silent in this act, puzzled perhaps because the presence of the devil was not leading to a further escalation of diabolical theatricals.

According to Azzopardi’s programme note, the writing of act two was done quite some time after that of the first act and this partly explains why the atmosphere changes so greatly from act to act.

Sometimes, the devil takes on the posture of a lecturer, especially in his unexpectedly detailed explanation of the impregnation process within Clara and Suda keeps himself wisely from indulging in any clowning as he pushes forward his dark project.

He controls all that happens in this act and when his plotting is complete and Dun Gwann, he thinks, enrolled as his unwilling partner, he exits without thunder and lightning but with an air of quiet triumph.

The audience is not allowed to see his chagrin when his grand plan falls to pieces in the last minutes of the production.

Vassallo’s Dun Ġwann develops from the confident exorcist of the opening scenes to the priest who is beginning to fear he is facing defeat, to the demoralised figure in much of Act Two, ending with his remarkable act right at the end.

Throughout Act One he kept his dignity even when his attempts to exorcise failed again and again, while during the second part his psychological defeat is so utter that his final act comes as a great surprise.

The young actors playing Clara and Kevin do well in these two unpleasant parts and do not flinch even when their words reach the limits of coarseness.

Cordina’s mother superior varies from scenes where she is the smooth Mother Superior to others where diabolical possession transforms her into someone totally different.

I could not always make out what Portelli, using some kind of Scottish accent, was saying.

Leister and March’s puzzled Dr Spears are not meaty roles, secondary roles made even more insignificant by the sensational action going on around them the whole time. Basmadjian’s Dr Agius has a certain importance initially and then fades out after a while.

Azzopardi’s direction has clearly paid much attention to the use of technology and to efficient stage management.

If, during the second act, he uses longish speeches, with language that is on occasion refined, the piece as a whole stands as an unsubtle melodrama in the tradition of possession films and theatre.