Theatre
Encounter with Migrants Narrative
Palazzo Pereira

With migration being a hot topic on everybody’s mind, following graphic images on the media chronicling the hardships and deaths of thousands, it is no surprise that the Rima Project at Palazzo Pereira comes up hot at the heels of the outgoing Lampedusa to give audiences a different taste of the migrant situation.

Focusing on the concept of personal crisis and change in terms of identity and “finding a place to call home” – rather than on the idea of international crisis and other people’s perceptions of “outsiders” – the performance was more about the migrants’ perception of themselves.

Magdalena Van Kuilenburg played an American married to a Maltese man.

It was therefore not a performance which was meant to raise awareness in the traditional sense but one which proposed the concept of migrants as being more than one skin colour or nationality.

In so doing, the idea was, of course, to help us realise that if certain types of migrants are acceptable, then why not others? Equally importantly, it is good to remember that sometimes, it isn’t circumstances which thrust the migrant upon the shores or boarders of a host country but a matter of personal choice.

Director Marcelle Teuma used the work coordinated by Virginia Monteforte and Elise Billiard Pisani over the past few months and brought together two seasoned actresses and two non-actors. In the case of the two actresses, they performed roles very different to their own experiences, while the non-actors seemed to portray versions of themselves which reflected reality more strongly.

Sharon Bezzina portrayed a Japanese woman who recently moved to Malta after spending 10 years in Canada. Magdalena Van Kuilenburg was an American originally from Wisconsin married to a Maltese man, who has been toing and froing between the US, the UK and Malta for most of her married life.

It is clear that Bezzina’s interpretation of an Asian lady was very different to her reality, while Van Kuilenburg, having a Maltese mother and a Dutch father, is used to the concept of ‘otherness’ to a point, but she still managed to push herself outside of her comfort zone by interpreting a different nationality and familial circumstances. The two actors’ relationship was a balancing act of suspicions and hedging, especially on the part of Van Kuilenburg’s character, who used masking tape to create a barrier – a line which Bezzina’s earnest Japanese lady was not allowed to cross.

The Rima Project wished to broaden the minds of its audience – we are all in a manner of speaking, travellers, looking for a place to settle and a space to call our own. Looking for a sense of home

Their narratives, which started as direct addresses to the audience, blended into a conversation between the two – setting up the possibility of dialogue and ultimately including each other and the audience in their stories, ripping an entrance in the barrier and letting each other in.

Both ladies did a good job in conveying otherness, although Van Kuilenburg’s American accent was not entirely convincing.

What mattered, however, was that the blending of differences emerged also on a performative level with the casting of non-actors in the other two roles.

Marta Lombardi found her ebullient Italian heritage helped her cope with her move to an island where everybody spoke an odd language with hints of similarity to her own, but entirely unintelligible. Her experience was clearly related to gathering with family and friends around the dining table – coming together to perform a very basic human act – enjoying food and company.

Lombardi’s dynamic, well-constructed narrative was the one which brought everybody together, with the narratives of all four characters converging the single-stranded narratives from which they all emerged. Food meant family and friends, which helped her find “home”.

This is precisely what soft-spoken Malian Ali Konate was looking for too – the same sense of home and belonging which he felt with his father as a child – a father who taught him that travelling broadened the mind.

It is with this hope that the Rima Project wished to broaden the minds of its audience – we are all in a manner of speaking, travellers, looking for a place to settle and a space to call our own. Looking for a sense of home.