‘I’m just a puppet on a string. Surely in this country no one takes puppets seriously?’ Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina‘I’m just a puppet on a string. Surely in this country no one takes puppets seriously?’ Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

The following is an excerpt from an exclusive interview carried out with the Giant Puppet of La Fura dels Baus, when it visited Malta last week for the celebrations of the crowning of Valletta as the European Capital of Culture. Giant Puppet – also known as Giant Humanoid Figure – speaks candidly about life and plague, unity and hate, and even running through walls.

Mr Giant Puppet, is this your first time in Malta? Can you tell us how much you like our country?

Um, err, sure, yes, yes of course. It’s my first time here and as you can imagine, because I am a giant, I am getting a very unique perspective of the island.

What did you think of the original and phenomenal show that Malta put up to launch the Capital of Culture celebrations?

Oh, it was fantastic. My favourite moment was when the crane lifted me up in Triton’s Square and I started moving next to the suspended acrobats. Mind you, this was not the first time I did it, I remember a few years ago while doing the same thing in Amsterdam in Dam Square, there was …

Yes, yes. So tell us, where are you from?

I belong to La Fura dels Baus, a Spanish theatrical group from Catalunya, and in fact we had produced the opening ceremony for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. But as I was saying, recently in Amsterdam and then in Budapes...

… Ah, I understand, so you only do shows for grand world international openings, Malta one of them?

Oh no, not at all. For example, companies like Pepsi, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Swatch, Airtel, Microsoft, the Port of Barcelona and Telecom Italia have all commissioned us to produce large promotional shows for them around the world.

Anyway, what did you think of the big show of unity of the Maltese people last Saturday?

Right, err, I heard your Prime Minister say how proud he was that even families with pushchairs came to Valletta on Saturday, and how this was a sign that unity is as strong as ever among the Maltese people. But, ahem, actually, I could see from up there that people with pushchairs were fighting with pushchair-less people. And there was a lot of elbowing, and people being pushed about to go on a bus… I don’t know… where I come from people hug each other when they feel united.

Oh, but that was because so many people came from all over Malta to watch you; don’t youfeel honoured?

Honoured? Err, yeah, sure. But you see, because I am very tall, I can see far away. And I could see people as far as Rabat, waiting for the bus from 5.30pm and they only got to Valetta at about 8pm, when I had nearly finished my act. And I really felt like telling them: “Look, stay at home, and catch a Ryanair flight to the destination of our next performance and it’ll take you less tim…”

Anyway, in this phenomenal cultural setting, have you learnt any Maltese words?

Yes! Several! I learnt the word ‘banda’ because Maltese people kept telling all foreigners: “This is banda, zin-zin-zin, nice ey?”, and I learnt the word ‘qubbajt’ “Try it. Qubbajt. Good ey?” I’ve even learnt whole sentences because I heard them so many times: “Ħa** *** attent il-qa**** pavaljun!”; *Il-l*** dak il-festuni tad-dawl! Dawk irridu neħduhom lura Alberbello f**** *****!”.

Moving on, what do you think of the friendly and welcoming character of the Maltese people?

Err, yes, people keep telling me that there is only serenity here.

Have you made any Maltese friends?

Well, I got to know the mayor of Valletta. He said to me how important it was that Valletta was the European Culture of Capital because it was a golden opportunity for residents to have their pavements back. He gave me a whole list of pavements in Valletta that need changing and was going into great detail about gravel and tarmac, and then luckily this other man came along and he was shaking everyone’s hand and tapping everyone on the shoulder and he told me “Call me Jason!” and we had a great chat about flowers and gardening and flowers, and then he spoke of how he’d run through walls with great passion for Valletta because he loves it so much, and I told him that he could just hop on my shoulder and we could just jump over the walls, and we were laughing. But then he started talking about this plague thing that he has … he said the European Commissioner Navracsics gave it to him when he shook his hand, and I have to say I was not very keen, and then luckily someone very tall (but not as tall as me) and jolly came along, and he told me that he was a Very Important Minister and Very Fit For Purpose, and that I should ignore what Casa was saying, and that I should get a sticker tattoo like the one Charlotte Crosby gave him, and I thought: “Whoa… this is getting a bit weird!”.

Right. To go back on my question – was our show better than others; would you say it was the best you’ve been to?

Strange that you should mention this. Even the Prime Minister! He said: “There was a time when we thought that others are better than us… We will show everyone.” Everyone kept saying this: “We’ll show them!” I do not understand. Who are these ‘others’ exactly? Who is ‘everyone’? Didn’t you put up this show to have fun yourselves? Who were you competing against? Is it perhaps you feel you are in competition with Leeuwarden, the city with whom you’re sharing the title?

What? Oh, no, no! [loud chuckles] Not at all! We all forgot about that. I mean, all of Europe was just looking at us – we are the centre of the world, look at the map. Where’s this other city?

Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands – the opening took place this weekend in fac…

I’m sure it was nothing compared to our phenomenal opening…

Well, it was different. They had all the students in primary schools singing together and they had open houses with story-telling; and all the museums were free for the evening; and there was lots of music and fireworks …

Anyway, it’s not important. How did you wake up the day after our opening? Tired but happy, yes?

On Sunday I woke up expecting people to be celebrating still; after all, this is a year-long event, but it seemed to me that people had already forgotten about it and were already talking about some “karru tal-Karnival”.

What message would you like to give to the Maltese people?

Message? Me? Well I’m just a puppet on a string. Surely in this country no one takes puppets seriously?

krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @KrisChetcuti

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