MADC paints Blue Box yellow with Image of an Unknown Young Woman, a play that tackles social media and in which perception plays a crucial role

Theatre
Image of an Unknown Young Woman
Blue Box, MSpace, Msida

The power of social media and the instantaneous impact it has on international audiences is a growing phenomenon which was vastly underestimated when the internet was in its infancy.

However, as its use gradually transformed into the actualisation of Big Brotherism in the real world – with the Arab Spring being a focal point of its power to rally the world to the cause of a group of nations and its abuse by organisations like Daesh for their vile propaganda machine fuels real emotions and fans petty grievances – we have become enslaved to the dictatorship of the instantaneous image.

Everything is tweeted and instagrammed, facebooked and snapchatted to the point of losing its deeper significance. All this in favour of a flash of raw emotional support, soon to be forgotten when the next slew of shocking images reaches our screens with that titillating jingle. For that is what international news has become: insta-shock, voyeuristic titillation.

MADC’s latest production, Elinor Cook’s play, Image of an Unknown Young Woman, at Blue Box, MSpace in Msida, explores how violence in the physical world can be transmuted into violence in the hi-tech visual world that we inhabit behind our screens, and how that, in turn, can become violence of the mind and of the heart.

A new face to the Maltese stage, Anthony Edridge, breathes life into the variety of different characters he portrays from concerned citizen to corrupt dictator and is complemented by Steffi Thake’s own brand of character doubling which has her moving from strength to strength as she transforms from journalist to injured girl, to the confused titular character.

Camilleri’s Yasmin was incredibly moving in her poignant despair

Joseph Zammit is not far behind with a set of stereotypes which flesh out the show and completes the triumvirate of very slick show enablers, allowing the actors with fixed roles to work their way around their societal markers.

Chris Galea’s Ali shoots a short video on his phone of a peaceful protest where a young woman in a yellow dress is randomly and senselessly shot by the police. Once he uploads the footage at the encouragement of his girlfriend Leyla (Maria Pia Meli) all hell breaks loose as the video goes viral and grasps people’s imagination, poisoning their minds and their perception of events, while an increasingly dictatorial government takes drastic action to mitigate damage to its sullied image.

In a play where perception plays a crucial role, the image becomes a symbol of a struggle but also swallows and obliterates the real struggle of people like Yasmin (Rebecca Camilleri) who is desperate to find out what happened to her mother, who has also gone missing in the protest. In London, an upper middle class, divorced and embittered middle-aged lady (Nanette Brimmer) wishes she could do more to help, as her charity contact Nia (Erica Muscat), who is a refugee from the same country as Yasmin, Ali and Leyla, uses psychological manoeuvring to get her to donate money which funds violent protest – a decision which she succumbs to, despite her misgivings.

Joe Zammit, Steffi Thake, Anthony Edridge as Chorus and Rebecca Camilleri (foreground) as Yasmin.Joe Zammit, Steffi Thake, Anthony Edridge as Chorus and Rebecca Camilleri (foreground) as Yasmin.

I particularly liked Galea’s performance as a concerned student-journalist as well as his dynamic with Meli’s Leyla.

Camilleri’s Yasmin was incredibly moving in her poignant despair as her search for her mother proves fruitless and exasperating.

All three actors displayed an emotional investment which matched the scenes taking place in the London setting, where Brimmer gave a very insightful interpretation of the turmoil a woman of her circumstances can experience, with Muscat’s own credible take on Nia – a conundrum of a character who reminded the audience of the dark side within all of us.

Director Philip Leone-Ganado steered his cast masterfully, orchestrating a very watchable piece of contemporary theatre which challenges its audience by exposing the social realities and consequences which our virtual lives on social media can have.

Image of an Unknown Young Woman examined the public violence of inner turmoil and showed us the vulnerability of a human race caught in the wake of a very contemporary reality. Certainly not a show to miss.

• Image of an Unknown Young Woman is being staged at Blue Box, MSpace, Msida on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8pm.

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