It is indeed a rarity for shows to go on tour across the Maltese islands, hopping from one village to the next over the space of almost 10 weeks, but that is exactly what More or Less Theatre plan to do with their double-bill production of two plays in Maltese: Għajn ma Tara, written by Simone Ellul, and Friefet Bojod, written by Lizzie Eldridge.
The plays came about as part of a mentoring exercise that kicked off a couple of years ago, and were originally penned in English before being eventually translated – and now performed – in Maltese. They were premiered in the Music Room at St James Cavalier over the weekend of September 28 and 29 and, from there, will continue their voyage across both Malta and Gozo until December 7.
Both performances consist of hour-long, one-act plays featuring some of Malta’s best talent. The two plays are, however, extremely different. Whereas Għajn ma Tara explores familiar themes along a well-constructed and defined narrative, Friefet Bojod delves into more contemporary themes using a more abstract format.
Għajn ma Tara, directed by Tyrone Grima, features an all-female ensemble. Two spinster siblings, Rita (Theresa Gauci) and Ċetta (Ninette Micallef) lead a life of quiet routine in the same home where they grew up.
While life ticks by, they spend their time planning trips abroad on which they will probably never go, and excitedly compiling scrapbooks with pictures and postcards of these meticulously mapped out and researched trips of whimsy. They dote on their niece Susan (Elaine Saliba Bonnici), daughter of their youngest sibling Luċija (Monica Attard), with whom both daughter and aunts have a strained relationship – Luċija evidently having been raised as the somewhat spoilt youngest sister, whose every need was pandered to without question.
Susan has returned to Malta after having lived abroad for several years, and slowly drops the news that she has walked out of her marriage with her Swedish husband, Anders, after the marriage broke down some months ago. Micallef and Gauci play the part of doting and loving aunts extremely convincingly, dancing that fine line between expressing their shock at the news and yet remaining unfailingly supportive of their favourite niece and are immediately recognisable as everyone’s favourite ‘zijiet’.
It is their love towards their niece that drives them forward and, while the news rattles them, their love and support towards her remain unflinching. Gauci is emotional but in no way mawkish when we learn that she, too, was once almost engaged to be married to Toni, the only man she ever loved, but was unable to follow him to Australia because of her ties to her family here in Malta.
Micallef, on the other hand, delivers a tight performance as Ċetta, the pithier of the two, firing well-timed quips from her quiet corner of the room. Susan has broken the news of her marriage breakdown ahead of informing her own mother, Luċija, portrayed petulantly by Monica Attard who proceeds to make things all about her desperately trying to steal everyone’s thunder and focus.
Susan is the binding force between the three siblings, bringing them together and forcing them to discuss and face issues that are inevitably brought into the open. Saliba delivers a well-balanced performance that succeeds in communicating the manifestly fraught relationship she has with her mother as contrasted with the far more open relationship she enjoys with her aunts. All four characters play extremely well against each other and the pace of the play ensures that the various tensions between each character are kept sufficiently taut so as to render the whole piece entirely realistic. Grima’s direction also ensured that the somewhat restricted space on stage was maximised to full effect; a not negligible feat in the circumstances.
Two extremely valid pieces of Maltese contemporary theatre
One-act plays can often be challenging in the sense that it is often difficult to compress too much action or emotion into a relatively short span of time without overburdening the piece.
In this, the play was extremely successful and the narrative was conveyed in such a way that the passage of time became a very secondary consideration despite its flaws. The opening prologue, during which Gauci and Micallef provide an exceedingly detailed verbal description of the room in which the action is about to unfold is, however, unnecessary and adds very little value to the piece – especially since the set is detailed enough as it is.
Although comparisons bet-ween two such different pieces of theatre are odious, their presentation as a double-bill makes this inevitable. The second piece of the evening was Friefet Bojod, a two-hander delivered by Toni Busuttil and Sarah Camilleri, under the direction of Lee-N Abela.
This play, unlike the earlier performance, is a largely abstract piece which does not have a linear narrative, but which relies heavily on long streams of consciousness outbursts by each of the two characters who, at times, also break down the fourth wall and converse directly with members of the audience, not entirely successfully.
The theme is a contemporary, yet simple, one. Josette (played by Camilleri) has lost her son to a drug overdose, and wishes to plant a tree to his memory on land where Toni (played by Busuttil) plans to build a 42-floor highrise phallic concrete tower block.
Throughout the piece, Eldridge creates dramatic tensions between the emotional mother and the money-driven property mogul, the ethical and the immoral, the powerful and the weak, the rights of private property owners and their duties towards the larger community, emotion and reason.
There are also strong references to the abuse suffered by the younger Toni at his father’s hands, and how this plays out in his thirst for power and for creating structures that are little more than macho displays of his damaged ego. This is countered by the far more fragile Josette who has been cheated of both her husband and her son before their times and whose losses translate into a sense of entitlement and a yearning for her grief to be acknowledged.
The themes, although abundantly clear, are presented to the audience who can do little else other than to take sides between the two parties, given that they cannot be part of the discussion: the result is a suffocating one of helplessness.
The piece itself required constant emotional somersaults from both actors which were not always conveyed effectively, as the play lurched from one sense of frustration to the next. Although Abela attempted to direct the play as tightly as she could, the piece remains one that presents challenges on a variety of fronts – not only because of the sudden swings in the linear development of the play, but particularly because the characters are at once speaking to each other, to persons in their past, to their own egos and to the audience.
The somewhat restricted space of the Music Room was not conducive to the demands of the script, which required far more movement.
As the play moves on tour and gets to utilise broader spaces that afford more movement for the actors, there is huge potential to delineate the emotional and physical spaces more clearly. The moments when the actors addressed the audience were the least successful, as they diffused the energy of a piece that is already hamstrung with significant directorial challenges.
These are two extremely valid pieces of Maltese contemporary theatre that are well worth watching, especially as they may well be arriving somewhere very close to you over the next few weeks.
In a country where quality performances in Maltese are missed if you blink too long, there is little excuse to miss the tour of these shows that will last until December 7.