Theatre
Tnemmis
AtrijuVassalli, University of Malta, Msida

There is a particular way of subtly and surreptitiously observing others that the Maltese do particularly well. A blend of spying and eavesdropping, Tnemmis has provided us with both the fodder for gossip and the evidence to fuel it.

Trevor Zahra’s new collection of short monologues, eponymously titled Tnemmis, was held in Atriju Vassalli at the University of Malta last week as part of the Evenings on Campus events.

Under the artistic production of Joseph Galea, the show consisted of 12 scenes in which the audience was presented with one side of the conversation generally between two interlocutors, with the exception of two of them which served as direct addresses to the audience, while the final sketch involved three people in a waiting room who presented us with the individual characters’ internal monologues and observations about each other.

Pedantic lecturer Anthony Ellul in Fil-Lecture Room.

Galea’s Fuq il-Palk and Snits’s L-Anġlu were slightly more sobering in their content than the cheeky light-heartedness of the other sketches, while maintaining a fine thread of humour and subtly criticising our human fallibility and foibles, taking on the personae of an actor/director/narrator and a guardian angel respectively.

Galea did, in fact, double as narrator, bridging the sketches and briefly introducing their thematic content.

The show started with the very cleverly scripted Fuq il-Mobile, interpreted brilliantly by Theresa Gauci as a middle-aged wife chatting to her friend on the phone and complaining about her husband – a well-observed and witty send-up of both our reliance on mobile telephony and the local flair for griping effectively about everything.

Zahra’s script is playful and easy to follow. Its uncomplicated storytelling and light entertainment made for a pleasant night out

These character studies were based on stereotypes which the audience could recognise and secretly identify with. Anthony Ellul’s Fil-Lecture Room saw him play the role of a pedantic lecturer talking about the hidden sexual implications of children’s nursery rhymes, both English and Maltese and came across as informatively funny.

His other sketch came at the end of the show – where he interpreted an old man suffering from haemorrhoid pain in the doctor’s waiting room, where he and another two patients wait their turn. Ryan Galea is patient number two in the sketch Fil-Klinika. He plays a paranoid young man whose chest pains and worry about a possible heart condition do not stop him from ogling a pretty young woman, played by Maria Farrugia, who is concerned she may be pregnant. While both young people think of Ellul’s crotchety, sullen character as being a dirty old man, he is more concerned with his health and privacy than they are.

Snits also portrayed another aspect of old age in Fil-Ġnien Pubbliku, which saw a loveable old man talking to his dog in the park and telling him that his life was much better than a human’s – highlighting experience tinged with loneliness.

Linking thematically to Ellul’s interpretation of childhood rhymes in the lecture sketch and Snits’s conversation with an interlocutor who cannot answer back, was Graziella Galea’s L-Iskola. A little girl chats to her beloved Teddy while waiting to be picked up from school, revealing in the process, the way in which children are misinformed about the birds and the bees, their misguided beliefs on babies and the nonsense given to young children in Church schools by prudish teachers, making for a funny take on the miracle of birth.

Snits observes the world around him in L-Anġlu.

Galea later played a middle-aged widow at the therapist’s office in Għand il-Psikjatra, recounting her three deceased husbands’ tragically entertaining stories and how she is cursed in love. Death was dealt with again in Fiċ-Ċimiterju where Joe Pace visits the grave of his business partner and tells him what he thought of their rise to power through shady deals, the fact that he was aware of the dead man’s affair with his wife and hints to his death taking place under suspicious circumstances.

Pace later portrayed an irate man attempting to file a complaint against his neighbour in Fl-Għassa, being thwarted by the list of his own domestic misdemeanours.

Moira Muscat’s sensitive portrayal of a patient, adult daughter as her elderly mother’s caregiver saw the story of Little Red Riding Hood being read and commented upon by both mother and daughter, was a light take on the sad reality that many face in old age: dementia and its effects on the family involved.

Muscat interpreted a very different role as an overeager woman in her 30s who is going back to work following a separation and has clearly forgotten her interview skills.

Zahra’s script is playful and easy to follow, providing the audience with a teasing insight into some of the daily workings of Maltese life. Its uncomplicated storytelling and light entertainment made for a pleasant night out.