In the sweltering summer heat, among the hustle and bustle of busy lives on Valletta’s streets, Grokk Teatru occupies its own quiet corner, preparing for its upcoming performance. The fledgling theatre company, brainchild of Antonella Mifsud, Ruth Borg and Mariele Zammit, is quickly finding its feet among established names in local theatre. 

Back in 2012, the trio met while training with TMYT – the Manoel’s youth theatre company – later forming part of Toi Toi, an educational programme also run by the Manoel Theatre. Grokk Teatru collaborated with Toi Toi to create PikuŻi, a series of plays for children that ran for two years and staged roughly once every month.

“We really worked well together,” says Mifsud, co-founder of Grokk and one of the directors of their upcoming performance Baxx Baxx. “The process of working and creating together really appealed to us, and it was something we wanted to keep doing further.”

From there, Grokk Teatru created a few more pieces for Toi Toi, but their first official piece was a devised show called Mikħal. This involved the three founders, another three performers, and a director collaborating with them. Exploring the urge to pursue meaningful relationships and understand the world, Mikħal struck a chord with audiences, winning four awards – including Best Overall Production – at the Malta International Theatre Festival.

“We were so energised and excited that we just wanted to keep going, even though we did not really have a solid idea of what to do next,” she says.

But inspiration soon followed when the Manoel Theatre came knocking a year later, offering the group a space on the main stage. Two of the trio, however, were not available to take on the project – with Borg studying in the Netherlands and Zammit occupied with other projects, Mifsud decided to go ahead regardless, bringing on André Agius to co-direct and Emma Micallef as project manager and photographer.

There is no shortage of creative energy on display

Forming a new trio for the purposes of this new production, the group set about devising a brand new piece to debut at the Manoel.

“We decided to devise a piece from a writer whose work we admire,” Mifsud says.

The result is Baxx Baxx, a piece based on Kullħadd Ħalla Isem Warajħ, a collection of short stories by Maltese author Clare Azzopardi. “We’re very grateful that she decided to go for it and was very excited to work with us.”

The cast of Baxx Baxx

The show Baxx Baxx, which stars Stephen Mintoff, Monique Dimech Genius, Benjamin Abela and Raquel Theuma, explores the theme of obsession and its ability to influence people’s lives and the decisions they begin to make as a result. “We read through the book and found the stories that we thought were the most interesting and had the potential for theatrical performance,” says Mifsud. “We found these four characters and placed them in our own world.”

The collaborative nature of devised theatre really seems to be at the front of Baxx Baxx, with both performers and creators having a strong voice in the process of bringing the show together. Additionally, more team members are brought on to give a more dynamic and unique look to the finished product. Kostas Papamatthaiakis, the show’s movement director, as well as sound designer Luke Cucciardi, have both been integral in giving the performance its identity and style.

“We’re feeding off of each other with ideas, creating the movement with the text and the music with the movement. That’s the process that we work on.”

A mild obsession seems somewhat required to pull something like this off. The Valletta rehearsal space that the group currently calls home is no refuge from the sounds of life carrying on regardless of rehearsal time, a constant din that does nothing to dampen the energy and enthusiasm of the young group of performers.

Mifsud, a drama teacher by day, acknowledges that running a production on top of a packed schedule is always a challenge for everybody involved. “Everyone gives the same amount of time to the production and everyone equally wants to be here,” she says. The passion is prevalent above anything else.

Despite the resources for theatre being what they are, there is no shortage of creative energy on display. As productions continue to grow in quality and frequency, Grokk Teatru has found no significant hurdles in carving its own niche and attracting the voice and talent of youth. While the nature of devised theatre is not necessarily straightforward – Grokk’s debut piece Mikħal being non-verbal for example – Grokk makes it its mission to tap into something essential in all their productions that make them accessible to any person willing to listen.

“We want to make sure that the audience isn’t just watching something new, experimental and daring, but as true to human nature as possible,” Mifsud says. “The nature of human beings is to tell stories, yet even if the narrative is fragmented, even if our style is out there, we still try to bring it down to the elements of life that people can relate to.”

Baxx Baxx is running at the Manoel Theatre from today until Sunday. For tickets visit www.teatrumanuel.com.mt.