Pete Farrugia reviews the recent production of Inwardly Silent, combining theatre, dance, poetry and music to recreate one person’s touching journey.

Inwardly Silent presents a performance that is, to the best of my knowledge, unique for its conceptual contribution to the performing arts in the Maltese islands.

Bringing together dan­cers, actors and musicians, the project pieces together the story of photographer Aldo Cauchi Savona. It is a compelling exploration of the process of his recovery, both from a terrible car accident and subsequent coma.

In one of his journal entries, Aldo describes himself as “hovering between two worlds… Upon regaining consciousness, not only did I have to recover from the physical injuries that, due to my brain damage, were not very good or functional, but I also had to relearn my entire life”.

Directed by Nicole Cuschieri, with poetry by Miriam Calleja and music by Alex Vella Gregory, Inwardly Silent includes an ensemble of voices, forms and styles.

Brandon Shaw’s approach to choreography weaves movement into a seamless whole with text and images, inhabiting Wignacourt Museum’s dramatic subterranean space.

Shuffling through the museum’s catacombs, like misfiring neurons in a limestone brain, audiences are enclosed by the layered debris of meaning which hangs so heavily from the cut-stone walls.

At once a sacred space, a place of contemplation and burial, and of anxious shelter during World War II, it is now a site of awe for contemporary visitors.

The performance takes shape as a walk through the Rabat catacombs. Throughout, performers punctuate the walk with episodic moments of film, recitation and dance.

Unique for its conceptual contribution to the performing arts in the Maltese islands

It felt important to discover a unifying reading of the actions which were, in themselves, ex­pressive rather than prescriptive. Were they best explored politically? Aesthetically? Ethically?

In effect, the performance moves in and out of each register, becoming a mirror through which we are invited, above all, to consider the difficult question of dignity.

The question proposes itself with urgency in an initial se­quence of scenes, where various performers (including Marilu Vella, Veronica Stivala, Joseph Zammit and Lukas Orpheo Schneider) recreate the bewilderment and disorientation that the healthcare system can create, particularly in the aftermath of catastrophic injury. The line between Aldo’s own experiences and the experiences of his family and friends is blurred, with audience members pulled into the ensuing anxiety.

A still from a short film created by Nicole Cuschieri for the production of Inwardly Silent.

Working through the frenetic barrage of words and images, the question of dignity lifts itself away from any single, individual experience. Instead, it coalesces into something communal, emerging as a relational conception of moral dignity in which the audience is invited to participate.

We are called to share a profound sense of loss and abjection, asking whether it could be more useful, and more freeing, to consider the links between an individual’s dignity and a community’s responsibility to uphold it. Is dignity, which felt so lacking in those disturbing scenes, a challenge to show respect for self, through the respect that our institutions, and we ourselves, extend to others?

The idea of communal dignity leads one to ask whether the ‘recovery’ of lost dignity is also collaborative. Is it something that dwells in the spaces bet­ween us, in the impossibility of ever truly knowing the mind of others, yet in making the conscious choice to approach, to draw closer, striving to connect?

In the end, any celebration of Aldo’s recovery, which is to say the restoration of his dignity (which the performance implies has, in some way, been lost) is as much about our sense of who we are as a community as it is about Aldo’s deeply personal journey. It is about my dignity and yours, and our duty to safeguard a spirit of respect towards each other.

In a world that has become increasingly unsettled, with old certainties challenged every day, the performance is a stark remin­der that we must never allow ourselves, even at our lowest ebb, to move beyond the importance of dignity. However, it feels like in some essential ways, we already have; which is why the path back to a place of dignity, a re-learning our society’s fundamental ABCs (the performance’s concluding song), is, in the final analysis, a re-learning of dignity.

Rediscovering and re-inhabiting the labyrinthine tunnels of the catacombs, of the mind, of society, is a journey towards expressing common concern for one another, in ways that are never exploitative, objectifying, or coercive. Rather, we must find ways of celebrating that precious place where Aldo’s dignity, where my dignity and your dignity, are mutually reinforcing; a place where they cannot exist independently of each other, and become a source of unity and meaningful connection.