Theatre
Tender Napalm
St James Cavalier

Love is a funny thing. To be in it, to have it for somebody, to get it from someone, to lose it, to fight the seemingly irrepressible feelings – not of passion but of lingering affection, of what might have been, of what is no longer possible and of what was taken away.

Elation, resentment, intrigue, anger, fear, doubt: that near-irrational second-guessing, the fear that keeps you from stepping over the edge of the precipice, and the knowledge that love once held a relationship together. All these notions are explored in Unifaun Theatre’s production of Philip Ridley’s stunningly poetic and brutal play, Tender Napalm.

This is a technically and emotionally demanding two-hander which director Toni Attard and directing assistant Lizzie Eldridge handled with great sensitivity while giving the visceral dynamics of a couple, whose relationship is in constant turmoil, their due importance.

Stranded on a metaphorical island, this couple, known only as Man and Woman, played by André Agius and Bettina Paris respectively, struggle with the various nuances of their love, from sultry sexual passion to the destructive forces of the tragedy in their shared past.

Theirs is an existence outside the constraints of time, because their pain is fresh and renewed with every memory. This is the kind of play which requires the cohesiveness in staging which only a strong combination of different disciplines can give.

Chris Gatt’s highly effective lighting design served as the perfect backdrop for Romualdo Moretti’s set – another one of this designer’s stylised creations which focused on the use of natural elements and relative simplicity, which I particularly like as a design aesthetic. His floating canopy of branches above the ‘deserted island’ juxtaposed isolation and rootedness while casting stunningly beautiful shadows – reflective of the two characters’ moods.

Sarah Mifsud’s choreography grew organically out of the feverish conflict between Man and Woman, which sends their relationship spinning out of control as they spiral from sexual intimacy to a desperate struggle for power and peace of mind in an increasingly unstable, almost unreal world. Ridley’s theatre is a torrent of poetry with a touch of absurdist, whose cleverly crafted words were marshalled by Toni Attard in a production which relied on the dynamism and chemistry of the two protagonists.

Both Agius and Paris gave stellar performances which were slightly raw given their youth relative to their characters’ level of experience, but this actually worked very much in their favour because it gave their interpretation the  immediacy and repressed pain which it needed. It was a pleasure to see these two up-and-coming actors take on something complex and weighty, and making it their own.

Both have come a long way since they first started treading the boards publicly: seeing them dealing with such an abstract and multilayered script so maturely, taking on its thematic and emotional richness in their stride, while connecting with the audience in a palpable manner, is a mark of an excellent knowledge of theatre craft.

Paris’s Woman was in equal measures coquettish, tender, angry and desperate at the loss she has suffered and her occasional descent into dark humour and indignance worked to counterbalance Agius’s Man as he moved from love and lust to hope and finally into bouts of wrath, bravado and defiance.

The dynamic between the two showed control and trust which translated into the right kind of confidence and energy on stage. Their arresting performance made the most of the play’s haunting themes of loss and fear in the age of terrorism, setting fire to the tumultuous emotions experienced by the two characters.

Tender Napalm is one of this season’s must-see shows and it is certainly an ideal showcase of the professionalism and quality Maltese theatre can reach. A much deserved “bravo!” to all.

• Tender Napalm also runs at St James Cavalier from tomorrow till Monday at 8pm.