The People Next Door, which was held at M Space, Blue Box in Guardamangia, was penned by the Scottish author Henry Adams.
It can be described as a comedy thriller that must be seen, not just because it is very amusing and sometimes scary, but also because it shows a contemporary Britain that is puzzled, confused and now frightened by the emergence of a militant anti-Western Islam among its own citizens.
The play is written in a long series of scenes, some of them very short, set mainly in two small apartments opposite each other and in the landing between them.
One of these apartments is occupied by a young man, Nigel (Andre Agius) who calls himself black and is of half-Pakistani, half-English birth. His sole income is derived from a disability pension.
He is said to have a mental disorder, but rarely sounds abnormal and lives a fantasy life all alone, fuelled by smoking pot and watching videos.
He is brought abruptly and roughly into the life outside when a bent, and perhaps deranged, policeman called Phil (Alan Paris) barges in on Nigel, whose half-brother Karim, has become a notorious terrorist.
Himself a coke user, Phil makes the bewildered Nigel try the drug, and then blackmails the boy into going to the local mosque of which Karim used to be an habitué in order to get him evidence of radical Islamic activity going on there.
Nigel’s visits to the mosque, however, make him see the Muslims frequenting it in a favourable light that contrasts with the violence and hatred shown by Phil.
Ironically, Phil’s main achievement is to turn Nigel if not into a terrorist certainly into somebody who can sympathise with terrorists’ grievances.
Lots of things happen in Act One which is mainly a lengthy but enjoyable preparation for the rapidly and excitingly evolving second act. During the latter we are introduced to two other characters who live in the flat.
There is the inquisitive old Mrs Mac (Marylu Coppini), who is chummy with Nigel though sometimes a great nuisance and the teenager Marco (Matthew Ben Attard), a boy of African descent whose mother, a prostitute, conducts her business (sometimes very loudly) in a nearby flat. These two become important characters.
Mrs Mac hates the sight of Phil, feeling instinctively how bad he is for Nigel and the intelligent Marco too tries to warn Nigel away from the copper. Both of them come together to save Nigel from a dangerous situation and, together with Nigel, combine to bring the play to a happy, if not terribly convincing, conclusion.
Andre Agius’s Nigel is not only the key character but also provides the production’s most arresting performance
Performed in a spacious area hemmed in by the audience on three sides and using a solidly, if not handsomely-built, set, Steve Casaletto’s production moves merrily from scene to scene, making much of the many laugh lines but also making sure that the violent scenes, where Nigel is beaten up, are alarmingly realistic.
Not so effective were the pre-recorded gunshot effects and I thought Mrs Mac’s poker was too small to produce the effect claimed for it.
Another more serious technical weakness was the inconsistent use of dialect pronunciation, especially in Nigel’s and Marco’s lines. The fact that the two actors are both white should have made it essential to use their speech as a race indicator. Coppini’s Scottish pronunciation may have been light but it was consistent.
Agius’s Nigel is not only the key character, but also pro-vides the production’s most arresting performance.
He develops beautifully from the scared and stressful young man bullied so mercilessly by Paris’s frightening and unscrupulous policeman to a young man whose exposure to the real world outside his flat makes him realise that Phil is victimising him.
Eventually, he stands up to him even at the cost of yet another beating up and, ultimately, at a grave risk to his life. His constantly-changing body language, as well as his use of a wide vocal range, make this a memorable performance.
Coppini’s Mrs Mac is the play’s most obviously comic character and makes much of it without ever descending into broad comedy.
A widow, she is also mildly touching as she tries to keep loneliness at bay by talking to her late husband’s framed photograph. She also shows her neighbour Nigel that her nosiness is mostly good-natured.
Matthew Ben Attard, a new face, sometimes needs to speak up a little more, but he still held my attention with his affectionate and concerned interest in what is happening to his friend Nigel.
I was pleasantly surprised by the way the Blue Box’s auditorium has been redesigned.
With quite a few drama groups now staying away from the Manoel Theatre, which they find expensive, Blue Box has become one of the most attractive alternatives.