Playwright and author Clare Azzopardi is taking the fight against gentrification and over-development to the stage. She tells Iggy Fenech all about her upcoming play, Tebut Isfar.

In an age when cranes have become as much a part of our skylines as domes have been for centuries, the discussion about over-development and its implications continues to intensify. Yet, while protests have been held during Planning Authority meetings and angry Facebook posts about the subject have become commonplace, not much seems to be changing.

And this is where Clare’s new play in Maltese comes in.

“Tebut Isfar deals with Valletta and the way it’s been gentrified,” says Clare, the author of titles like Il-linja l-ħadra and Kulħadd ħalla isem warajh, and who also coordinates the Maltese Department at Junior College and lectures in Maltese literature.

“The play also deals with the arrogance of the Maltese business class and the way some exploit their strong ties to people in power. That results in a certain attitude; a certain arrogance or impunity: ‘I can do whatever I want, because the powers that be are in my pocket’ – you know, that sort of thing.”

The story focuses on Ġorġ, who has lived with his daughter in his little coffin shop in Valletta for eons. Yet, as has become the norm, a developer has now set his sights on buying the shop in order to turn it into a boutique hotel. 

“I chose a coffinmaker as one of my protagonists because the one and only coffinmaker that still stands in West Street intrigues me,” she explains. “But, probably more than that, it’s symbolic: Valletta has become one big coffin for the Beltin. And that is how Valletta is seen through the eyes of the coffinmaker: all of his friends are being chucked out of their homes and, sadly, very soon, it will be a city for outsiders, while all the people from Valletta will have gone to live elsewhere.”

In Tebut Isfar, this little coffin garage which has belonged to Ġorġ’s family for generations, becomes the stage for the battle that can be seen being fought all across the island, but there’s more to the play than first meets the eye...

Some of the questions it seeks to answer, apart from whether what is happening to our country is right or not, are: What comes into play when Ġorġ is forced to choose between selling or saving his family’s tiny shop? On which side will his daughter stand? Why does a woman request a yellow coffin? And what is the big secret he is hiding in the kitchen? 

Produced by Unifaun Theatre, directed by Marcelle Teuma and starring Peter Galea, Mariele Żammit, Leigh Anne Abela and Anthony Ellul, Tebut Isfar is a play that has been a long time in the making, with various changes having been made along the way. In fact, Clare and Marcelle organised two readings with different types of audiences to gauge feedback, and even set up a crowdfunding campaign on ZAAR.com.mt to help them bring it to the stage.

“It’s all in Marcelle’s hands, now,” Clare smiles.

“The words are mine only until they are still on my desktop... They belong to her, and to the actors working with them.”

Which is probably better for Clare, who is being kept busy by her two other projects: a libretto for Il-Qtates ta’ max-Xatt, an opera written by Euchar Gravina and directed by Denise Mulholland for Teatru Malta in November, and a picture book with Matthew Stroud called Max u l-Ħanut tal-Ħelu, which will be published by Merlin Publishers in the months to come.

Tebut Isfar is supported by the MAF Project Fund of Arts Council Malta. The play will be on at Valletta Campus – University of Malta on October 13, 14, 19-21 and 26-28. Tickets are available online.

www.ticketline.com.mt

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