It’s nostalgic, it’s about love, and beautiful people, but it’s also about strength and courage and serves as a window on life in Malta during the war. Veronica Stivala meets the cast and creatives as she too falls in love with The Star of Strait Street.

The beautiful Christina Ratcliffe came to Malta in 1937 with a three-month engagement at The Morning Star, just off Strait Street in Valletta, which was extended to six months. Malta had become part of her, and she loved it, body and soul.

Returning in 1940, she stayed on throughout the war, working in the Lascaris War Rooms and crea­ting The Whizz Bangs, a troupe of entertainers who toured army camps, air bases, forts, clubs.

And that’s how she met Adrian Warburtonm, at 26 the most decorated pilot in the RAF, eccentric, crazy, gallant beyond belief. How could she not fall in love with him?

Like him, she was attractive, charismatic and adventurous, and with their personalities, zest and determination, they were to become living symbols of the island’s unconquerable spirit.

The relationship lasted until 1944, when Warby failed to return from a reconnaissance mission.

The writer, Philip Glassborow, also fell in love with Malta when he visited for a previous production that he also wrote, The Great Big Radio Show. He explains this sad love story that he wrote, and which will soon come to life in the very street where this story took place – Strait Street.

The site-specific two-hander sees Christina in the 1970s (Polly March), looking back over her life in the 1940s (Larissa Bonaci) as she worked as an entertainer during the war. This gave Glassborrow the opportunity to make use of a “marvellous treasure-trove of wartime hit songs to include in the show, as well as to write some new songs in period style”.

Indeed, the war plays an important role in this play; in March’s words, it is “paramount” to the story: “It was the war that brought Christina and Warby together, and it was the Maltese friends she made during that time and later that sustained her throughout the rest of her life. The story could not have happened without the war.”

The story could not have happened without the war

March explains how the character she plays is “looking back, still, somehow, wanting to believe that her golden boy would fly back for her. She remembers those glorious, terrifying days of the bombing, knowing, as everyone did, that this day could be their last, and she remembers the friends she made among her Maltese neighbours, and those who cared for her, and looked after her in the later years.”

In 1943, Christina was awarded The British Empire Medal. “She was a woman of spirit and courage and humour; the life of a young dancer/entertainer in the 1930s and 1940s was even tougher than it is now,” comments March, as she explains more about her character.

Post-war, Christina wrote articles for this newspaper, then The Times of Malta, and she opened The Café Christina, in Melita Street. She stayed on in Malta, until her death, living in Floriana.

Adding to this, Bonaci stresses how the woman’s love for the island is “evidently seen through all the great work she did in Malta”.

Bonaci is over the moon to be able to play such “a strong woman who not only was a hopeless romantic but who worked hard to push women forward in society, breaking through that glass ceiling”.

Another important protagonist is the music that features in the play. Musician Geoff Thomas explains how World War II was the first major conflict during which popular music was accessible to a wide audience:

“There were ballads, marches, big band dance numbers and patriotic ditties. You had Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, George Formby, Glenn Miller and Anne Shelton.

And, of course, there were paro­dies and pastiche. In this musical play, the music reflects the era and the world of Christina Ratcliffe.” To achieve this, notes Thomas, Glassborow complemented some songs of the period (Ship Ahoy, I Double Dare You, etc.) with some original pieces that evoke the atmosphere of Strait Street, and in particular, The Morning Star. “The music is used at key moments to reflect on the past, to create the atmosphere of the club itself, and to add extra pathos to the ending. So prepare for more wartime classics such as Welcome to Valletta and When Your Heart Found Mine.”

The story has caught the attention of a documentary production company that will be following the creation of the piece and which none other than John Rhys-Davies (Gimli in Lord of the Rings) will be presenting. It will be aired on Maltese TV and also on networks in the UK and the US.

The Star of Strait Street is being produced by the Strada Stretta Concept and runs from Tuesday to Thursday at The Splendid, Valletta.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.