If painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks, then it would be interesting to see what Plutarch would have to say about poetry which has been turned to physical theatre, Trap-ease: a Physical Poem being the latest example.

Based on the recently released poetry book Pomegranate Heart by Miriam Calleja – a book which I had heard about through the grape vine and had been dying to read before I saw the play which was based on it – the play left me wishing I had read the book before watching the performance, which would probably have helped my understanding of it immensely.

Held at Palazzo Pereira in Valletta and performed by Wi111ow Theatre, the opening of the play was pretty easy to digest; Tim (Brandon Shaw), an alcoholic named Sheila (Alba Florian Viton) and Luisa (Naomi Said) are each auditioning for a part in a play.

Alba Florian Viton and Brendon Shaw.

They later convene at what appears to be a party; however, from then on, things seemed to get a little hazy and despite the fact that the actors were quite effective at bringing a lot of energy and physicality to the set, there were parts of the play where one couldn’t really follow what was going on, making the synopsis provided in the programme indispensable to the significance of it all.

I did not, for example, realise straight away that Sheila was Tim’s sister and Luisa was his ex girlfriend, which inevitably led to a couple of confusing moments.

However, that may be partly due to the seating arrangements in a building ill-suited to such performances; many times I was practically keeling over in my chair to get a better view of the actors and, in fact, much of audience did actually stand up in order to be able to see what was going on.

The tag line of the play ‘your greatness is my fortress’ is a beautiful example of the wonderful wordsmanship which Miriam Calleja has become renowned for. But I wasn’t particularly sure that it came across as much as it could have in the context of the play itself.

That said, I do feel that the actors were able to convey a very multi-faceted, multi-sensory experience and, due to our close proximity to them and to each other, we the audience, were able to take part in a sharing of human experience.

The actors were able to convey a very multi-faceted, multi-sensory experience

It was abundantly clear that there was a lot of thought behind the multi–layering techniques employed by the characters – my qualm is that there may have been just too much of it.

I found things like turning the lights on and off at different points of the room to attract the audience’s attention to the right spot undoubtedly clever and helped refocus attention when it inevitably started to wane.

I also particularly enjoyed the party scene and the symbolism employed when Luisa builds a cardboard box wall between her and Sheila, emphasising her character’s rigidity and lack of movement.

It was moments like this which truly brought out each individual character’s properties. Massive kudos also go to Florian Viton for playing the most convincing drunk I’ve ever seen outside of Paceville on a Saturday night.

Something which I did find particularly interesting, and which shaped the entire night, was the marking of scenes through the use of music by new kids on the block, the Fuzzhoneys.

Not only did the music fit in with the overall somber and at times nostalgic mood of the play, it truly did work to enhance and give meaning. Also of note was the use of writing on pictures of various body parts, positive and negative, highlighting the fact that one can look at the same things yet see them completely differently.

As Anais Nin’s famously wrote: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

As a great lover of poetry, I am very aware of the inherent selfishness in enjoying one poem and not another – we always chose and admire works that we ourselves are able to relate to and see ourselves in. Many times we choose one writing over another based on our own experiences.

If one of the last poems of the night, “My memory of you is better than you” is anything to go by, then Miriam Calleja is very much a woman after my own heart.