A new musical theatre piece composed by The New Victorians commemorating the Sette Giugno centenary at Fort St Elmo; Anthony Burgess’s cult classic A Clockwork Orange, translated and re-invented for a contemporary teenage audience; and an outdoor stage adaptation of the best-selling novel Pope Joan at the Mdina Ditch are all part of the upcoming season of work by the National Theatre Company of Malta.
Teatru Malta have launched their 2019 programme at City Lights Cinema in Valletta with a jam-packed calendar of events boasting a number of exciting projects. Teatru Malta was established in 2017 as a National Theatre company with the aim to break ties with insularity when it comes to theatre and move towards building a theatre ecosystem that has no walls, no artistic limitations and no structural boundaries.
“It is thanks to such programmes that we ensure to uphold our cultural strategy, to keep on making culture and the arts more accessible to the community, in their various forms,” stated Culture Minister Owen Bonnici during the launch.
“Teatru Malta will be travelling to venues across both Malta and Gozo, making sure to bring theatre to audiences all over the islands. The programme will also include the involvement of a variety of local theatre practitioners and international artists, further enriching its quality and sustaining its overall diversity. The programme includes touring street circus performances, monologue masterclasses, and a festival for children. The next upcoming project is the children’s opera based on Clare Azzopardi’s award-winning children’s book Il-Qtates ta’ max-Xatt, directed by Denise Mulholland,” Minister Bonnici continued.
When asked about the programme, artistic director Sean Buhagiar went on to say that: “Teatru Malta is a journey, not a destination. Looking back, 2018 was a successful learning curve. In 2019 we aim to be better in more ways than one. This year I could afford to be even bolder in my choices, because of the ethos of Teatru Malta. Our team is growing and so are our audiences. At this point in our journey, the priority remains audience development. Many of our stories are set in the past, but we’re building the audiences of the future. If you’re new to the magic of theatre or a recovering theatre addict, if you’re eight years old or a kartanzjan holder, if you fancy comedy or prefer drama, if you like large-scale shows or prefer intimacy – we have something for you to enjoy.”
Executive chair of Arts Council Malta Albert Marshall spoke about how Teatru Malta “opens up a space for innovative and bold experimentation, employs the theatrical expression in order to facilitate public debate, launches topical and relevant social commentary, creates new audiences, pushes theatre to the limits and works closely with the communities – in a few words, it thinks, creates and acts ‘outside the box’, and looks towards celebrating inclusivity, diversity and difference”.
Teatru Malta also has a number of opportunities lined up for this year with initiatives like the Spazji Teatrali collaboration project which aims to sustain functional theatre spaces in Malta. The programme sees the second year of the Proġett Klassiċi, an initiative aimed at expanding the publication and performance of well-known classics translated to Maltese.
It will also be producing Eugène Ionesco’s Rinoċeronti under the direction of Michael Fenech and published with a translation by Clare Azzopardi and Albert Gatt, along with other publications by Ionesco which will also be translated to Maltese.
Teatru Malta will also be re-visiting a select number of hit shows from 2018 as part of their new repertoire programme!
www.teatrumalta.org.mt