In another theatrical coup, Unifaun Productions teamed up with Teatru Malta to host the world premiere of acclaimed British playwright Brad Birch’s latest play, Game.
The play centres around what is typically referred to as the beautiful game of football. It was wisely commissioned to have its premiere coincide with this year’s edition of the greatest football competition, the World Cup and designed to be staged in our national stadium.
This was Teatru Malta’s second play that centred around sport, the first one being their debut production Raymond Fight Beck, that dealt with boxing in Malta.
It’s refreshing to see new theatrical work being written about aspects of Malta, other than our folklore and history. Yet, I can’t say I was convinced that Birch was really basing his play around a local situation, despite giving the family at the centre of his play a distinct local surname.
In this play, Birch continues his exploration of the themes of corruption and family ties that local audiences have already had the pleasure of witnessing, with his version of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, titled En Folkefiende, that was also produced by Unifaun.
This time around he focuses on the Vella family, where football at the heart of family matters.
It’s refreshing to see new theatrical work being written about aspects of Malta, other than our folklore and history
Chris (Malcolm Galea) is the son of the local football team’s manager who has recently passed away unexpectedly. A former star player of the same team, Chris has now moved on from football and helps run his wife Daniela’s (Erica Muscat) restaurant that is affiliated with the football club.
Chris’s sister Lisa is also seeing Anthony (Davide Tucci) who is the current team captain, beloved by Chris’ father despite the fact that he missed the decisive penalty in the recent final.
The play opens with Chris and Daniela clearing up the restaurant after the wake that followed the funeral. The scene is sombre and uneasy. They are surprised by a late night visit from Peter, the club’s president who over the course of the evening reveals to them the dark secrets that Chris’s father had kept from his family and the club’s fans; secrets which have now been passed on to his family and wedge Chris between a rock and a hard place.
The choice of location for the play, though clever, unfortunately did not really add much to the directors’ (Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Alessandro Ferroni) efforts to transcend the realism of Birch’s text, as was hinted at in the programme note.
The play is set entirely in the restaurant, against a dark backdrop of the stadium. This did little to reinforce the idea that the game of football was being used as a metaphor for life. Birch, actually includes numerous ‘interludes’ for the actors to break from the realism of their dialogue. However, most of the actors clearly seemed uncomfortable with the break.
Ferroni’s sound design was much more effective in creating the ambiance that I could sense was behind the directors’ intentions. Romualdo Moretti’s set design along with Chris Gatt’s light design, both combined beautifully to transform empty stadium terraces into an evocative setting, but I struggled to feel engaged with the piece.
Typical of Unifaun, this was another gamble. Hats off to them and Teatru Malta for continuing to take risks.