I cannot imagine what Joseph Scicluna must have felt when he was preparing and writing a record of what his father – one of the 43 Maltese who were deported to Uganda during World War II – went through.

The internment and deportation of Maltese nationals is one of the saddest episodes in Malta’s history. The recalling of those events, 70 years later, in a theatrical piece entitled I.D. Internati u Deportati, performed by Scicluna and others was a truly moving tribute to the suffering of the deportees, yet which also allowed for lighter moments.

This remarkable presentation was held in the basement of the Auberge de Castille in Valletta. The use of this subterranean space gave the performance an authentic feel and necessitated the involvement of the small audience.

The event moved from one room to the next in the same way that the internees were moved from one camp to another both in Malta and in Uganda. The confined space created the right ambience. The actors had very little space in which to operate and yet performed brilliantly.

The actors – Joseph Scicluna himself, Katia Capato, and Glen Calleja – gave a superb performance.

The participants were not theatregoers but part of what was being done. In fact, they were given the identity of the deportees themselves. The ‘comic’ elements actually highlight the seriousness of the tragic situation the internees went through.

I know, from personal experience, that this is a very delicate theme. When in 1980 I published my book Deportation, 1942, the reaction I got was extremely worrying. After so many years people still find it difficult to look at what happened from a purely historical view. I am sure that the event will also get very mixed reactions.

Scicluna, however, managed to write a script, in spite of his personal involvement, that sticks mainly to facts. He does not condemn or condone. The result is a very effective performance.

There will be those who will condemn some personal references (as, after all, the families, especially the children of deportees, still find the facts disturbing), but the end result is that once more we Maltese have been reminded of the guilt we should feel at what happened and the fact that this historical element remains without a memorial (apart from the marble slab that then Justice Minister Guido de Marco had put up at the law courts).

All the actors gave an incredible performance; however, I must single out Katia Capato, who although Italian, still fit into the largely Maltese script and gave a very emotional interpretation of various characters, all in the span of a few minutes.

A truly incredible event in every way.