Zach Braff’s All New People, which was staged at Blue Box at M Space, Guardiamangia, has been described as a black comedy.
I myself see it as a light, sometimes broad, comedy with pretensions to seriousness. It is in one, long single act that has the audience laughing much of the time.
Anthony Bezzina’s light-handed direction, with its close attention to characterisation and to the numerous pieces of stage props it requires, holds the viewer’s attention without flagging.
The setting is a beach house on Long Island on a very cold, snowy day. At curtain up we see Charlie (Malcolm Galea) standing on a chair with a noose round his neck, smoking what he intends to be his last cigarette. His intended suicide, however, is not to be, for in comes an estate agent, Emma (Jo Caruana).
Emma is a somewhat eccentric and very talkative English woman who has fled England and is desperately trying to be authorised to work in the US. She intends to show the place to clients but, instead, gets the shock of her life.
She manages to dissuade Charlie from going ahead with his plan and, for support, phones Myron (Thomas Camilleri), a fire-fighter who is her lover as well as her drug supplier, a job he seems to be doing for the surrounding region.
Charlie’s attempts to get rid of them are futile and eventually another person arrives; Kim (Maxine Aquilina) is a prostitute, or escort girl as she prefers to call herself, sent by Charlie’s wealthy friend, the beach house’s owner, to cheer Charlie up on his birthday.
Holds the viewer’s attention without flagging
There is little plot and the piece entertains mainly by revealing the past experiences of all four characters, all of whom are socially alienated, whether through what they say or by a series of short film excerpts revealing their not-so-glorious individual past.
The intrusion of these four filmed scenes is clumsy and their chief purpose appears to be to bring in three other actors, in this case Marc Cabourdin, Isabel Warrington and a face that is new to me.
By the end of the play, the four strangers have become not just new friends, but practically family for Charlie.
The play’s end may not be uproariously happy, but Charlie has lost his desire to die and in Emma he may have found a new love to replace the girl who once walked out on him.
Bezzina has found himself a strong cast, led by Malcolm Galea, as the initially-despairing Charlie. Like Emma, Charlie seems to have a belief in God, and Galea narrates Charlie’s experience with a deep seriousness that sets him apart from the other characters.
His gradual awakening from longing for death to a a new appreciation of life is impressively performed.
Caruana’s Emma recounts her traumatic experience back in England fairly late in the day; this experience is clearly the reason behind both her drug-taking and her affair with Myron.
Camilleri’s wise-cracking Myron has no moral regrets about being a drug supplier or about flirting outrageously with Kim in front of Emma, whom he professes to love.
Myron deserves Emma’s great outburst about finding it impossible for her to love him.
Aquilina’s voluptuous Kim complete with a plunging neckline is not a tart with a heart of gold, but she can be good-natured with people she likes, though the filmed episode dedicated to her reveals a darker side.
A touch of coarseness in Camilleri’s manners would have added credibility to the part.