As colourful as his wit is clever, Chucky Bartolo is no stranger to the stage. With a personality as big as his drag queen persona’s hair, his choice to take on the role of dame in a panto which will be held completely in the dark is an unexpected, yet extremely interesting, one. How much does his drag queen persona have in common with Miss Ħuta and is Tolqueen’s hair really is full of secrets?
“I’ve been doing drag unofficially since sixth form,” Chucky laughs. “Suffice to say, some of the faculty weren’t too impressed with my first foray, however, I seem to have had some form of impact on my friend Vikesh Godhwani (one of the writers and co-directors of Gawgaw: A Panto in the Dark) because when he came up with the idea together with Marta Vella, he instantly phoned me and asked me if I would want to take part. This phone call from an old friend happened in February and its November now so you could say I carried this baby to term.”
Speaking of babies, Dame Miss Ħuta is primarily different from other dames because she is quite a bit younger than one would expect.
“I know everyone says this about their role, but she is. She’s a teacher but not by choice. She is very young yet a maternal role has been thrust on her. She wants to be a good sister to her brother but at the same time, she really wants to do her own thing. She’s one of those women who love the modern diet trend so if someone tells her to cut out GMOs (or any other letters of the alphabet for that matter), she will cut them out of her diet without really knowing why. She’s a vegetarian who will dabble in fish as long as it’s glucose and lactose-free!”
A vegetarian who will dabble in fish as long as it’s glucose and lactose-free
The irony is that no one will actually be able to see Dame Miss Ħuta in the flesh so to speak.
“This is possibly the very first production of its kind. It’s going to be held at Esplora, so that the audience really do get a sense of the darkness that the visually impaired experience. In fact, all the people showing the audience to their places are visually impaired themselves. The entire panto will take place via headset. “As you can imagine, this was a huge challenge for me. I’m so visual and image-based in the way that I am that people not being able to see me is going to be challenging. If there’s something that I’ve learnt from this panto it’s to let go of some of my control.
“I have to trust the audience to come up with their own image of me from what they hear. I can’t depend on my hair and makeup to carry me through or my overly expressive face. Since I’m not going to be on stage, it was a process of unlearning all that I’ve learnt because all everyone is going to have to rely on is my voice. I’m wondering how my singing is going to sound because I’d rather not deafen anyone.”
Of course, many people who have already seen Chucky in action as star drag queen Tolqueen might think that his role as dame will be a mere extension of Tolqueen, however, Chucky reassures us that it is not the case: “Tolqueen and Miss Ħuta could truly not be more different. While Tolqueen has a love of men and a reluctantly nice side, Miss Ħuta is much more in your face, character-wise, and has something of a more aggressive and cut and dry way about her.
“They both have that nicely trashy edge where they wore one ring too many but the dame is fully a character created by someone else. Indeed, it is a challenge to not be Tolqueen when I am performing but I think I’m winning the fight. For me, it’s all about making a character memorable and since no one is going to have a visual image of me, my voice is going to have to do all the work. Visually-impaired people have a heightened sense of sound so I’m really paying attention to all the nuances of my own voice.”
Although pantos are usually defined by colour and sound, Dame Miss Ħuta is adamant that this version will offer audiences a magical sensory experience. “This panto really is a show for absolutely everyone; however, the audience is being invited to experience it from the point of view of someone who is not able to see. You’re getting the full experience in a different way; after all, there isn’t just one way to see the world. It’s so exciting to me that all these different people will have all these dissimilar ideas and images of our characters based on what they are hearing. I suppose it shows you how little appearances truly matter.”
Gawgaw: Panto in the Dark takes place from December 18 to 23 at Esplora Planeterium Hall, Kalkara.
This article first appeared in the Sunday Circle magazine.