Theatre
Trap-ease
Palazzo Pereira, Valletta

The connections we make with people mark us and them on levels which can often be very difficult to pin down.

Wi111ow Theatre took inspiration from some of Miriam Calleja’s poems collected in her new publication Pomegranate Heart and created a physical theatre piece staged at Palazzo Pereira, Valletta last month.

Devised and directed by Alba Florian Viton and performed by Viton herself, Naomi Said and Brandon Shaw, the performance, aptly entitled Trap-ease and accompanied with live music by the Fuzzhoneys (Francesca Mercieca and Caroline Spiteri), examined the complexity of interpersonal relationships in a tripartite combination.

Tim and Sheila Seymour are two siblings with very close attachment issues. Their sinuous dance-inspired movement clearly shows that their overly-friendly behaviour is rooted in a latent form of mild sexuality relying on protection, mutual understanding and reliance.

They both audition for a role in a play called Trap-ease and the alcoholic Sheila does not know that Tim’s ex-girlfriend Luisa has also auditioned for her role.

Both women want to entertain Tim on his birthday: one as an expression of sisterly love, the other as a means of asserting her power over him.

Their realisation at having both thrown a party for him, bothers each woman to the point where their interactions lead to movements which verge from sinuous nearly sensual to sharp and controlled and finally to haphazard and frantic.

Tim and Sheila struggle to keep up with each other as he tries to calm the murky waters which engulf Sheila and Luisa, which reveal an almost strange attraction between the two women. They are drawn to each other and react negatively because of their struggle for the affection of the same man and the perceived worth they think they have in his life.

The human barrier becomes penetrable and each woman attempts to exert control over the other

The child-like play between Tim and Sheila transforms to an adult confrontation in which Tim wants no part. Suddenly, the fourth wall is broken and it transpires they are performing – extending their workshop-like auditions and blurring the boundaries between truth and the fictive.

Thus, we realise that the characters which Tim, Sheila and Luisa want to play are very close reflections of themselves – in a scene where Shelia and Luisa become aware of each other. The human barrier becomes penetrable and each woman attempts to exert control over the other.

However, this leads one to think that one form of control is the one which they wish to exert over themselves, once they realise they are projecting another version of their existence. And so, the same counts for the three talented actors who portrayed Tim (Shaw), Sheila (Viton) and Luisa (Said), who all end up exploring aspects of their own personae as actors and interpreters of an author’s script.

After the auditions, while Tim and Luisa get sent off, Sheila is chosen and her vulnerability gives way to a new quiet strength which leads her to handle herself much better with the ever-growing concern of having to share her brother in a relationship which balances, traps and eases the participants into their different roles in each other’s lives.

I found the painting of the brown paper boards during a symbolic moment in the performance to be particularly useful in understanding how, once the ‘audition-workshop’ was over, the scene cut to Tim’s literature class and the two girls recite poetry – and expose their body-painted drawings to reflect their emotional conflict – stained by each other’s presence on a deeper level, and forever present in Tim’s life.

From venting their frustrations on each other to leaving their mark on each other, the two female characters allow Tim to see a bit of both women in his separate encounters and thus readjust the balance in their relationship.

Trap-ease proved to be a thought-provoking piece of intense physical theatre.