Theatre
Tikber u Tinsa
St James Cavalier

The singularly odd situation of encountering a future version of yourself is undoubtedly unnerving, but what if the reverse is also true? Thus was the nature of the two-hander scripted by Simon Bartolo and staged recently at St James Cavalier, under the direction of Roderick Vassallo.

Tikber u Tinsa blends elements of the psychological thriller with dark comedy and science fiction, masking the sad reality which emerges at its close, with the promise of a more humorous time-travelling romp. The denouement which occurs at the end shattered the illusion of the sci-fi fantasy genre and presented the audience with a cold, hard and disturbing reality which, while slightly predictable towards the end, made for effective storytelling.

While Vassallo’s direction made good use of the acting space and channelled the cast into a solid rendition of the piece, I felt that there was an imbalance between the performances of Jamie Cardona and Clive Piscopo, who both play the protagonist Albert Fenech at different ages – 15 for the former and 30 for the latter.

Albert comes home from school one day to the mess of his room – he is, to all intents and purposes, a typical teenage boy dancing to music and getting snappy with his mother (Alison Abela) who is clearly ill from the vast amount of coughing that peppers her interactions with her son.

Following a laddish chat with his friend on the phone, he is distracted by the sudden appearance of a strange man who seems to have entered his bedroom unannounced and undetected by his mother.

Tikber u Tinsa was a good experiment... but required more polish to shine the way it could have

This man, played by Piscopo, attempts to explain to the young Albert that he too is Albert – a version 15 years older from the future. The reason as to how or why he has appeared is a mystery to both of them – Piscopo’s Albert knew he was sent by ‘her’ but has no idea what the purpose is. And when ‘she’ calls on his phone, the young Albert refuses to speak to her and obtain an explanation.

Cardona has excellent comic timing and his terse, typically cynical, often cheeky teenage responses to Piscopo’s more serious, worried tone kept the flow of the play even and the pace fast.

However, he has reached that rather difficult stage in his life – being a teenage boy is never kind to your voice – where his diction and clarity were unfortunately compromised by his breaking voice.

Listening to his delivery was rather laborious and in contrast to Piscopo’s very urgent, occasionally overly sharply pitched portrayal of an older, more experienced man; the interpretation felt unbalanced.

I wasn’t convinced by the direction given to Abela to cough constantly. Certainly, it was an important plot point but it could have been done rather more subtly and possibly worked more effectively as the revelation at the end of the play may have had an even stronger impact.

I did, however, enjoy Piscopo’s earnestness and the genuine sense of bewilderment and confusion that both actors conveyed. Confronting yourself is undoubtedly a traumatic and surreal experience, especially when, in the final scene of the play, it is revealed to the audience that the older Albert was under hypnosis on his psychiatrist’s couch. Abela also doubled as the psychiatrist at this point and her resemblance to Albert’s mother triggered negative memories from his past which she was helping him explore, and come to terms with and admit to a crime which he committed on the night of his ‘encounter’ with his younger self and blocked out till then.

At this point, Piscopo came into his own as a dramatic actor, where his acknowledgement and breakdown made for very good characterisation.

All in all, Tikber u Tinsa was a good experiment in this clever niche genre but required more polish to shine the way it could have.