I wander around Valletta with headphones in my ear, listening to and obeying instructions emanating from the tiny MP3 player I am holding in my hand.

At the moment, Valletta seems to be experiencing a misty place in-between – not the past; not the future. It is a substantial place

My two companions and I (we have synched our MP3 players, so we are each experiencing the same thing and the same time) listen to a story about a sailor staying in Valletta during World War II, who fell in love with a girl called Maria. Years later, he is back… but will he ever be reunited with his lost love?

This is just one of five audio guides to Valletta which came about as a result of a very interesting, week-long project based in the capital city at the beginning of April.

The project, called The Uncommercial Traveller, has already travelled to London, Melbourne, Karachi, Penang and Singapore.

It is named after Charles Dickens’ documented description of his wanderings around London, where he revealed parts of the city which normally would have remained hidden from the general public.

The project, which aims to find a 21st-century resonance of Dickens’ accounts by creating audio-guided tours of cities around the world, is in the hands of award-winning company Punchdrunk and one of the most respected arts venues in the UK Arcola Theatre, who together form Punchdrunk Enrichment.

They were brought to Malta by the British Council, in collaboration with St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, as part of their Dickens 2012 programme, wherein the British Council is working with over 50 countries worldwide to coordinate a number of educational and cultural events celebrating the bicentenary of one of the UK’s most prolific and influential novelists.

I met two of the three creators of the project – Bryn Jones, Arcola director and Raquel Meseguer, Punchdrunk director – (the third member of the team is sound designer extraordinaire Stephen Dobbie) – who explained why they thought Valletta was the perfect setting for a project such as this.

“Valletta feels like a place in transition, a place being transformed at the moment,” Meseguer said.

“All those lovely, underused old buildings that you get a tantalising glimmer of. I found Valletta a very rich, interesting city; a fascinating place to wander about.”

She explained that the notion of transition was very interesting to them for this project. After all, the whole project is about “exploring the underbelly of the city, peeling back the superficial façades the city presents to the visitors and residents.”

Jones agreed it was an interesting time for this project to be happening: “At the moment, Valletta seems to be experiencing a misty place in-between – not the past; not the future. It is a substantial place. I love the fact that there are reminders of the past everywhere, such as old street signs; not like in most other city centres – especially in the UK – where the past has been ‘plastered over’ by the present, making them all look much the same.”

In Malta, 11 local participants – some with a theatre background and some not – were given the opportunity to work with Punchdrunk, sharing their stories of Valletta, which were ultimately woven into a narrative that leads audiences to a tour of the city, inviting them to view familiar surroundings in an entirely new way.

They were divided into five groups and the work they did it was ‘translated’ into the final five audio guides, each with its own, unique story.

Both Meseguer and Jones had nothing but praise for the local participants, calling them very creative, incredibly committed and competitive – striving to do and be the best.

They said the standard of work the groups have reached is absolutely great; poignant… resulting in a fresh twist on Valletta.

The five audio guides may be downloaded from http://www.britishcouncil.org/malta-arts-and-culture-the-uncommercial-traveller.htm or from the British Council’s Facebook page.

People can either listen to them at home – wherever they are in the world – or physically follow the guides and wander through Valletta, hearing about the stories and interacting with the city as they go along.

Coryse Borg is artistic programme director for V.18.