Theatre
Four Play Four
Manoel Theatre

It is always a pleasure to watch the next instalment of one of the original and best comedy sketch shows our theatre companies have to offer. DnA Production’s Four Play Four – as the title suggests – is now in its fourth edition and, barring a few filler sketches and dances, has kept its material fresh, current and incredibly funny.

Currently running at the Manoel Theatre and starring Alan Montanaro, Louiselle Vassallo, Isabel Warrington and Edward Mercieca, this show delivers its promise: a fun night out, with laugh-out-loud performances and witty send-ups of current public blunders in our country.

While the introductory piece, Folk Play scripted by Montanaro, directed by Denise Mulholland and choreographed by Emma Loftus, started off as mildly humorous, mocking traditional Maltese dances and cultural stereotypes, the next piece was hands down one of the funniest sketches I have ever seen.

Written by Montanaro and directed by Herman Grech, it featured Vassallo as Chenticienne Marie Chetcuti, a recurring character who has now moved up in life and is currently working at Identity Malta, which she calls “The Forrin Orifice”. Chenticienne is still up to her tricks on the telephone – having a prolonged gossip session with the mysterious “Hi” as in “Aw hi!”, punctuating her remarks with cackles of laughter and dealing with shady customers who wish to buy into the government’s scheme of selling passports to foreigners.

Montanaro featured as an Arab passport buyer whom Chenticienne talks through the ludicrous process of filling in an application form and highlighting, in her inimitably chavvy way, the corruption which is rife in such practices.

Louiselle Vassallo in Not Net One TVM.

Vassallo’s inimitable interpretation remains my favourite of the night – having created a character who is incredibly likable for all her irritating stereotypical traits.

Another sketch which always goes down well is one which satirises the way in which local television stations give us different versions of the same news item based on their political affiliation.

Not Net One TVM, once again directed by Grech, who also wrote it, had Warrington parodying the One TV newscaster with her fake English accent with wrongly placed vowel sounds and inflections, Vassallo as TVMorose speaking in an instantly recognisable bored monotone and Mercieca as the Net newscaster, showering doom and gloom from the negative perspective of the Opposition.

Of the other ensemble pieces which were highly entertaining, Golly What a Name!, written by Joseph Zammit and directed by Chiara Hyzler, with Mercieca on guitar (playing a country-style song) telling of the terrible choices for names that Maltese parents have made over the years, with the rest of the cast playing various parents making misguided and ignorant decisions.

It was the individual performances which really showed the actors’ comic skills

Meanwhile, Couples Show Down, written by Vikesh Godhwani with additional material by Hyzler, saw Montanaro and Warrington as the Manduca Fourniers from High Ridge competing against the Borgs from Ħal Safi played by Mercieca and Vassallo, while Malcolm Galea provided the gameshow host’s voice-over. What these pieces did was to harness the epitome of the ridiculousness which both halves of society live by, while another voice-over which has me in fits every time Fourplay stages a show, is the cameo by Halloween Montesin – performed by a talented actress who prefers to keep her identity secret: her imitation of one of our country’s more infamous media personalities is spot on.

Who's the prettiest of us all: Louiselle Vassallo, Edward Mercieca, Isabel Warrington and Alan Montanaro in the Miss Malta sketch.

Halloween talked the audience through a beauty pageant, Miss Malta, written by Montanaro and directed by Mulholland, ending the show with a runway parade to make your toes curl: with Montanaro as the flamboyant and pushy Miss Bormla, Mercieca as the dull Miss Dingli, Warrington as the airhead Miss Manikata and Vassallo as the spaced-out Miss Għaxaq.

They were a fitting ending to a funny show, and certainly more entertaining than the dance segments and cheesy wedding video clips which poked fun at the tasteless Maltese ones which are on offer on You Tube. However it was the individual performances which really showed the actors’ comic skills.

From Vassallo’s “Forrin Orifice” to Warrington’s ‘slot’ as Susan in Make Me a Dedication – the brainchild of Galea. He also cast Warrington as the gratingly hilarious Mrs Zammit bit-Tikka in Spellink Kless and had her shine both as a bumbling, unwittingly insensitive radio host and as a wry and pernickety Education Department employee who holds a spelling competition open to all schools based on the new rules for orthography. Here Vassallo as Shanice-Marie-Jo and Montanaro as Michael battle it out in a send-up of the madness which Maltese spelling has become.

Mercieca’s Żaren in the Full Monti sketch by Grech was a scheming monti salesman who gets a government job through a vote and a leg up because “tagħna lkoll”. Montanaro’s Defsa: the Return was much anticipated and as usual, incredibly funny as a parody of the blogger we all love to hate but whose posts we all share on Facebook.

Four Play Four is definitely a show to watch both for its entertainment value as well as its clever parodic take on local life.