Theatre
Ma Rridx Immur
Manoel Theatre

Adversity has a habit of bringing out a person’s true colours while also providing a fertile backdrop for introspection and possible growth.

The manner in which human relationships are tested and survive major life-changing events is the subject of young up-and-coming playwright Leanne Ellul’s script Ma Rridx Immur, this year’s winner of the Premju Francis Ebejer and presented as a collaborative production between the Manoel Theatre and the Rubberbodies Collective, supported by the Malta Arts Council.

For a winning script, Ellul’s work is simple in plot structure and focuses instead on its character development and the poetic manner in which thoughts are recounted and memories and emotions are experienced by individuals in the play. These are treated as separate entities at times, on a collision course towards each other while at others fleeing from those truths they find difficult to handle, and always, always attempting to carve out a niche for themselves in a world which they find problematic to navigate – whether alone or together.

Twenty-year-old Casey (Ruth Borg) juggles study and work and an atypical living arrangement with her boyfriend Alfio (Ryan Cutajar) at his grandmother’s house; where Nanna Mary (Josette Ciappara) rules the roost and actively monitors “those young ones” as they flit in and out of her kitchen, dispensing unsolicited advice and oddly tolerating, if not approving, their sleeping arrangements.

When things get too much for her chez Nanna Mary, especially when she has her recurrent argument with Alfio regarding his idleness and apathy in finding a job, Casey usually retreats to her best friend Samantha’s (Marta Vella) house, which she shares with her placid canine friend – a cutely ugly pug.

Her hum-drum existence, punctuated by her reading of Dun Karm’s Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu comes to an abrupt halt when the sharp, nagging pain in her side is diagnosed as cancer. This throws her entire atypical family circle in tilt, forcing her to think back on her short existence to understand her journey and look to an uncertain future.

Borg’s Casey came across as a no-nonsense, hard-working young woman, still coming to terms with her reality as a young home-leaver who packed her things and walked out of her belligerent, chain-smoking, alcoholic father’s house, leaving her previous life behind to start afresh with Alfio.

The ambience created was a combination of contrasts between stark brightness and subdued shadows

Her time with her father may be behind her, but it is not forgotten and haunts her in retrospective memories, with a flash of green light and a harsh voice (father voiced by Albert Abela), reminding her of how unloved she was. She was abandoned by her mother, just like Alfio was by his. So they both have missing male role models in their lives – with her father largely absent and his in psychiatric care.

It is tradition in the guise of Nanna Mary that gives them a family life and a solid reference point. What was most striking about the ladies’ performances was that they were dealt with sensitively and realistically.

Borg’s Casey goes through life sustained by her love for poetry and her patience with Alfio, while she comes to terms with her sexuality: she transforms her initial teenage infatuation with the lesbian Samantha into a strong platonic, sisterly bond, supported by the ever welcoming and patient Vella as Samantha. The latter makes an effort to tolerate Alfio while he makes his antipathy for her clear, all for the sake of Casey, who is struck down by cancer and turns the lives of her nearest and dearest upside down.

Borg with Marta, who plays her best friend.

Vella’s interpretation as the brash and bubbly Sam, contrasted with Alfio’s brooding personality which Cutajar initially delivered rather robotically, but later grew into his role, and his later interactions with Sam and his grandmother worked well.

Ciappara’s Nanna Mary was nuanced and complex, striking the right balance between introducing a more light-hearted element to the play and reining in her own emotional response to the illness which takes over their lives.

Matthew Pandolfino’s revolving stage and set design, assigning colours which acted as mood markers for each character was a clever idea, completely within Rubberbodies’ stylistic modus operandi, which also gave the audience a richly detailed symbolic backdrop with animals assigned to each character (a goldfish for Casey, a caged bird for Nanna Mary); a flash of smoky green light when the memories of Casey’s vice-ridden father loomed in her head; and a gradually inflating giant rubber balloon reflecting the growing tumour leeching Casey’s life.

With lighting design by Jimmy Grima and Marvic Sultana and sound design and music by Mario Sammut, the ambience created was a combination of contrasts between stark brightness and subdued shadows which reflected the long silences accompanying several moments of tension and quiet reflection on stage.

Director Grima stated in his programme note that these silences clashed with the brighter, brasher louder moments in life, echoing a duality which the human psyche always gets caught in. While I found the concept appropriate, the execution was rather too prolonged, creating a lull in the scene transitions and slowing the pace rather excessively.

In fact, the problem with the play lay in the fact that it was too laboured in its slower moments, which admittedly contrasted with the cacophonous outbursts of heated discussions and loud exclamations so typical of our local character. However, I was left feeling rather empty by the piece, in spite of the strong conceptualisation and strong acting.

It appeared as though the performance was a combination of devices which worked well individually without ever creating a stronger overall effect.

What was evident, however, was the fact that for the sake of the one person they cared about, the other characters all set their differences aside and came together, reminding her that she had a reason to live – a reason to stay.