Theatre
Kelma Jew Tnejn
MITP
The promise of new work by fresh young minds is always a prospect to look forward to. Martian Theatre’s debut performance, Kelma Jew Tnejn, a devised piece of performance art combining dance, with choral chanting, physical theatre, and verse-recitation is an interpretation of young writer Marija Debono’s poetry, adapted and directed by Martha Vella. The venue chosen, MITP in Valletta was ideal for such a conceptual piece of work, which relied heavily on music and lighting to create the right atmospheric effect.
Musical director Luca Zerafa took care of the live music which was particularly fitting, if at times a tad too loud, especially during the recitative pieces which required a softer tone; while lighting was in the expert hands of Joe Vella – who created a visual story to compliment the performance. As the piece was highly visual, the good choice of colour-blocking worked extremely well with both the lights and the message on the poetry. With vivid red flooring and black backdrops, blue costumes and accessories thanks to Leann Gauci Abela, who also performed, and the use of simple but effective props and dim lanterns, the stage was already a crisply prepared canvas for the painted performance.
Although the piece’s title deals with words, the focus was as much on movement as it was on the strength of the poetry which had a clean simplicity to it. A rather long introduction focused on facial and vocal expression by using non-linguistic variegated babbling which followed speech-tone patterns and accompanied the antics of the six performers, who later untied in introducing the piece with the poem Kliem (Words) highlighting the power of language and the strength that words have in building relationships and making sense of the world around us: forging our behaviour and cloaking it with meaning. It was clear that there were certain segments which worked better than others, especially in terms of their effectiveness and their ability to keep the audience engaged. I was not quite won over by the length of wordless sequences, even though their execution was undeniably slick and well-timed. The segment which followed Kliem – a humorous dance, could have done with being shorter, and Yanika Bugeja’s solo Ħolma Sabiħa (A Beautiful Dream) came as a welcome break, with just the young performer, carrying a lantern in a very effective piece, describing the dream of true love – which is just that – a dream.
Unfortunately a pendulum scene done in slow-motion and a completely silent tango-style dance which was meant to express a power struggle did not really fulfil what they set out to do. Especially since the latter was preceded by an excellent scene featuring Rebecca Bezzina, which chronicles her emotional journey from a dark place to a lighter one, by travelling from one square of light to another until she finally reached peace and interacted with the audience using a brightly coloured cluster of balloons. The transition from being in a “dark place” to finding self-fulfilment, is a response to the previously performed strong, visceral and dynamic lament of Dwejjaq (Sadness), where Anthea Xuereb is tied up and enslaved by her fears and inner demons, played by the animalistic Rebecca Bezzina, Rozita Lautier, Leann Gauci Abela and Yanika Bugeja. She is tied, tortured and taken away in a dark, brooding, almost terrifying piece.
A shorter interpretive scene was that where Maria Angela Vassallo, delights in the simplicity of her flower and scarf, setting the mood for the final poems Tfajla and Li Kieku, where Leann Gauci Abela and Rozita Lautier respectively talk about self-respect in the strength one should have against exploitation and the effort one ought to make in empathising with another. Ms Xuereb’s light-hearted “painter scene” where she creates a picture of roses on a white canvas using spray-paint and stick-on 3D roses was sweet and playful, and introduced Ms Bezzina’s heartfelt final thoughts on the second part of Dwejjaq, which ends in a dramatic shower of rose petals symbolising the rebirth of hope in the tears shed after suffering. A gymnastic-action piece had a demure Ms Xuereb swing to the rhythm of words while the other cast members recited Ma L-Irjieħ (Just Like the Wind) in the flickering light of their lanterns which a spot-light lit the swing – decribing life’s mysteries and unpredictability – just like the wind.
Concluding with a repetition of Kliem with a more mature outlook on life, the six young girls look around them and see that their words have shaped their path and hopefully have also had an effect on the audience. What was certainly evident was that this piece of performance art was different to the usual fare without being pretentious or overly academic – providing us with an enjoyable evening and a promise of what is to come.