Alfred Buttigieg is one of our finest and most adventurous playwrights - and his new play Ippermettili Nitlaq, is a prime example of both his expertise and his daring.
Mr Buttigieg has taken a touchy subject like a chronic birth defect and turned it into both a fascinating piece of theatre and a metaphor for modern life.
Ippermettili Nitlaq is to be staged in the theatre-in-the-round at St James tonight, tomorrow and Sunday... then again the following weekend from October 10 to 12. It highlights the almost unthinkable quandary a youngish couple find themselves in, when they learn that the child they are expecting has a minimal chance of ever living a normal life. Indeed, it will probably die either in infancy or at a very young age.
Should they take a chance on subjecting the child to complex surgery, that probably won't be successful, or let nature take its course and allow the child to die naturally.
As the playwright says: "The line between parental love and possessiveness blurs, and rationality and selfishness merge."
Directing will be Immanuel Mifsud, who will be remembered for his sensitive handling of the Maltese translation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (Il- Qawwija) in the same venue a few years back.
He has assembled a very good cast comprising Monica Attard, Stefan Cachia Zammit, Liliana Portelli, Malcolm Galea, Angele Galea, Mikhail Basmadjan, Sharon Bezzina and Joe Cortis.
Mr Buttigieg has taken a touchy subject like a chronic birth defect and turned it into both a fascinating piece of theatre and a metaphor for modern life.
Ippermettili Nitlaq is to be staged in the theatre-in-the-round at St James tonight, tomorrow and Sunday... then again the following weekend from October 10 to 12. It highlights the almost unthinkable quandary a youngish couple find themselves in, when they learn that the child they are expecting has a minimal chance of ever living a normal life. Indeed, it will probably die either in infancy or at a very young age.
Should they take a chance on subjecting the child to complex surgery, that probably won't be successful, or let nature take its course and allow the child to die naturally.
As the playwright says: "The line between parental love and possessiveness blurs, and rationality and selfishness merge."
Directing will be Immanuel Mifsud, who will be remembered for his sensitive handling of the Maltese translation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (Il- Qawwija) in the same venue a few years back.
He has assembled a very good cast comprising Monica Attard, Stefan Cachia Zammit, Liliana Portelli, Malcolm Galea, Angele Galea, Mikhail Basmadjan, Sharon Bezzina and Joe Cortis.