As Żigużajg 2015 edges closer, doctor by day and actor by night Joseph Paul Vella tells Iggy Fenech about playing the lead role in The Drooming by Aleateia Theatre.

Joseph Paul Vella in The Drooming. Photo: Elisa von Brockdorff

Founded in 2011, Żigużajg International Arts Festival for Children and Young People has become one of the most anticipated happenings in Malta’s jam-packed cultural calendar.

In essence, many assume it to be solely for children and teenagers but, while they are the target audience, the themes tackled in the plays, concerts and art exhibitions that make up Żigużajg can be both timeless and universal.

This year’s edition of the festival, for example, includes an exhibition commemorating the passing away of one of Malta’s most prominent post-war artists, Antoine Camilleri and an interdisciplinary production about Maltese folktales, which are intrinsically intertwined with our history and culture.

The Drooming, by Aleateia Theatre, will also deal with many matters that are relevant – now, more than ever – to all of us.

The plot of The Drooming revolves around three women who meet in a waiting room and discover that all of them run out of dreams – a place which many of us, maybe less dramatically, find ourselves in. Through hypnosis and other dubious techniques – masterminded by Dr Droom, who is played by Joseph Paul Vella – the women experience vivid ‘drooms’ of everything they have ever dreamed of.

“Dr Droom is a very eccentric, sleep-deprived doctor who specialises in dreams and in treating people who can no longer dream,” Joseph says. “He also has a hidden, world-domineering agenda, which he is secretly working on. He will stop at nothing to fulfil his dream for, as he always says, ‘Why dram it when you can droom it?’”

That, in fact, is where the story takes a twist. Dr Droom installs the Drooming app onto the women’s smartphones and turns them into his mental slaves. Through them, he aims to take over the world by making the app go viral.

We plan to sing, dance, amaze and dubstep the night away

“He’s quite a ruthless, power-hungry individual with one or two screws missing,” Joseph says. “In fact, he’s not so relatable. Even so, we do share some basic things. He’s a doctor, like I am in real life, for example, but we seem to have attended very different medical schools. Nevertheless, he does have a soft streak in him and he does want to belong and fit in.”

The original script, by Simon Bartolo, for Aleateia Theatre may be fantastical, but how different is it to real life? How ‘zombified’ have we all become thanks to the rise of the smartphone and mobile internet? I, myself, checked my phone some 10 times while writing this. But despite making us question modern lifestyles, The Drooming is no drama, it’s a comedy that makes fun of the world we live in.

“I have been part of Aleateia since 2003 and have performed in various productions with them, both locally and overseas, including the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, The Hans Christian Anderson Festival in Denmark and The Navigacion du Savoir Festival in Malta, among others,” Joseph says. “Past productions include Drowning Lilies at the MITP, The Broken Plate at St James Cavalier, as well as various book launches for the Fiddien trilogy.

“About this script, however, all I can say is that I’ve been working with Simon for over 12 years now and he has never disappointed me with his creations, both as a performer and as a member of Aleateia. And, more importantly, as a person,” he says. “The script is excellent, witty and funny, it comes to life during rehearsal time in a very unique way.”

The rehearsal process, Joseph says, has been quite challenging, particularly because the actors playing the three women reside in Brussels, Belgium. This meant that the cast has had to rehearse over Skype, book last-minute flights to Belgium for 14-hour rehearsals, keep each other updated by e-mail and carried out numerous solitary workshops. Even so, Joseph is adamant that all this has been worth it.

“The audience is in for a show full of fun, laughter and ‘drooming’,” he says excitedly. “Expect the unexpected in this production. Will the doctor succeed in his master plan? Will his patients experience the droom and live to tell the tale? We plan to sing, dance, amaze and dubstep the night away.”

As part of this year’s Żigużajg, The Drooming must be contexualised within the festival which, each year aims to showcase the professional arts to Malta’s children and young people. For some children, Żigużajg will be their first visit to the theatre ever. And, for teachers, it will be a unique opportunity to present a myriad of artistic disciplines to students. For artists and production companies, on the other hand, this is the perfect platform to develop works aimed at the upcoming generation with their unique way of viewing the world.

“Żigużajg always gets bigger and better with every passing year and this year seems to be no exception. Everyone is fully committed to this wonderful project and the whole system is run in a professional and friendly way, with an output result of high excellence,” Joseph says.

Żigużajg is being held between tomorrow and November 22. The Drooming runs tomorrow and on Tuesday at 6pm and November 22 at 10.30am and 6pm at St James Cavalier, Valletta. The show lasts 60 minutes; targets children aged 10+ and will be performed in English.

www.ziguzajg.org