As they get ready to debut their next, long-awaited production some of the team members behind the Teatru Manoel Youth Theatre speak to Jo Caruana about their latest devised piece, Rubbish.

It was around the middle of the last century when devised theatre first pottered on stage. It didn’t arrive with a bang but, instead, infiltrated gently through renowned practitioners including Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook and Etienne Decroux. It slowly signalled a move away from text-driven plays, to those that were crafted more organically through a creative process, often using games, themes and particular forms of inspiration. Since then, it has become a beloved technique for creating truly original and, often, groundbreaking, work.

For 19-year-old Steffie Weenink, the Teatru Manoel Youth Theatre’s (TMYT) Rubbish will be her fifth devised piece, following on from the group’s successful renditions of Peculiar Children, Club, Qatt Ma Ninsa and The Three Sunsets.

Primarily, Steffie will be a performer in the show but, as she explains, lines are very blurred when it comes to devising, as everyone involved has several roles to play. “This time around I have written a few scenes and was even given the task of directing one of them,” she says. “I was also involved in working on promotion, school workshops, puppet making and the overall look-and-feel of the final production. It’s been exciting to do a little bit of everything really.”

Now that the team is so experienced, their mentor and director, Denise Mulholland, chose to give them a lot more responsibility in the final piece. Denise stresses that devising is difficult – teams spend a third of the process generating material, a third getting rid of material “and the final third panicking about not having enough material!” she quips. “However, the best thing is that you create a piece that is tailor-made for your cast.”

The director describes how, through the devising process, each performer creates his or her own stories and journeys, so they have a greater degree of ‘ownership’ than they probably would when working on an existing script.

All of that starts with an idea. Her inspiration for Rubbish came from a news report just under a year ago. In it, Hungarian police had found an abandoned van – the kind of vehicle with an airlock system used to transport frozen foods. “The people smugglers had taken money from migrants trying to cross the border into Austria, knowing full well that none of their passengers stood even the slightest chance of making it out alive because, once the door was closed, the space effectively became a vacuum, making it impossible for any of the 71 people (including four children) to breathe.

Devising is difficult – teams spend a third of the process generating material, a third getting rid of material and the final third panicking about not having enough material

“I heard this news on the radio while I was driving and I remember pulling over and sitting by the side of the road for a long time. What struck me more than anything was the complete lack of regard for the value of these people’s lives. The driver knew they were going to die but, to him and to the smugglers, their lives were dispensable – they were effectively rubbish. That story has haunted me ever since.”

With that in mind, Denise discussed the report with the TMYT team and, together, they opened the topic up a bit to include other social groups where people can be lost and discarded – from refugees to runaways, and trafficked people to those who are simply lost. “We were inspired to tell the stories of these people – seemingly disparate but actually connected,” she goes onto explain.

Rubbish itself is set in an unspecified location – somewhere dark and joyless. In it a seemingly-unconnected group of young people sift through and sort never-ending piles of rubbish. They don’t talk, they don’t share their experiences and they don’t think about their pasts, their present or their future... they simply sort the rubbish.

“Into this situation comes a new person – a man called Amar,” Weekink continues. “From the outset, he challenges them. He forces them to talk, to listen and to share, and he shows them that they all have something important in common. All of them have been ‘thrown away’ by society.”

Just like the piles of trash they sort, the sorters too have been deemed rubbish. Trapped in this interim space, they cannot begin to move on until they have acknowledged their stories. Led by Amar, they share their experiences with each other and, as they do, they realise that they may deserve more than the lives they are living.

The piece is aimed at children who are eight and over, so the team has used the kind of storytelling techniques that appeal to a younger audience, while still engaging all other age groups. With this in mind the stories are recounted in different ways. Some are told through puppetry, some through physical theatre, some with shadows and some with music. Together, the production promises to be moving, funny, significantly relevant and, above all, educational and entertaining.

Now, Rubbish is rearing to go, although one of the biggest challenges is yet to come – unveiling it to an audience.

“When it comes to a devised piece, things are amended and changed right up until the last minute, because it is constantly evolving,” says Andrea Baldachino, another member of the troupe, who has been very involved in the directing side of things time around.

“While this is arguably insane, it is definitely the most exciting part. Now that it is in its very final stages of development we hope that Rubbish leaves its audiences with an understanding of the fact that no one has the right to treat anyone that badly. We hope that people empathise with others and never forget that all the stories we hear in the media are about real people. Sometimes we tend to become desensitised to the horrors in the world simply because we hear about such dreadful things so frequently. Rubbish is a piece about people and stories and we are extremely excited to show it to you,” he said.

Rubbish runs at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, next Sunday at 6pm. Tickets are available online.

www.teatrumanoel.com.mt