The debate rages on at Spazju Kreattiv with De-terminated: The Abortion Diaries, written and directed by Herman Grech.

In tackling such a heavy and divisive topic, Grech has set himself no easy task, but his production charges at the issue head-on and doesn’t hold back.

Brave and packed with strong performances, De-Terminated makes an interesting, if slightly challenging, evening at the theatre.

In the style of theatrical ‘confessionals’ such as The Vagina Monologues, De-terminated takes its inspiration from human stories, and strays away from a conventional narrative structure.

The experiences and opinions of its cast of characters are interwoven to present multiple sides of the complicated topic at hand.

Viewed on their own, these individual tales, each with their highs and lows, are already gripping in and of themselves.

Grech’s decision to cut back and forth from one character to another only serves to enhance them further, juxtaposing the various points of view to present a balanced portrait.  Grech is a lucky director indeed. While I’ve seen productions struggle to cast key roles, he has been fortunate enough to land himself a team of some of the strongest performers on the island. Jo Caruana, Jes Camilleri, Charlotte Grech, Alan Paris, Marta Vella and Isabel Warrington are a formidable cast, each bringing strength and confidence to their roles.

Jes Camilleri and Charlotte Grech. Photo: Elisa Von Brockdorff

One fact I couldn’t help but notice was that Paris is the only actor playing two separate roles. Although his performances are powerful, and at times downright heart-breaking, I had to wonder if it was a deliberate choice to only double up one role, or if it was just a matter of practicality.

Grech and his cast have managed to walk a fine line which is sorely needed locally

I feel that it is the strength of the cast which in part saves De-terminated from feeling a little too journalistic. The true stories told on stage were collected by Grech during a series of interviews, and he was right to conclude that every one of them could easily be a play in and of itself.

That being said, I did feel that the writing felt a little awkward at times, perhaps in the interest of preserving the stories as they were originally told to the interviewer.

This problem is particularly prominent in the extended dialogue between Charlotte Grech and Jes Camilleri, whose characters each embodied the loudest voices on either side of the national debate.

While the actors worked well across each other, and even managed to get me to consider some points I had never thought of before, the script’s back and forth did veer a little too close to the endless abortion debates you can find in online comment sections.

That is to say, it was more two people talking at each other rather than to each other. Representative of the situation, perhaps, but not as gripping as the rest of the production. That is not to say that Grech sticks so close to his journalistic strengths that the cast have nothing to work with. Far from it. Portraying one of the most emotional roles in the show, Marta Vella gave an absolutely stunning performance as a young woman faced with a horrific situation.

Meanwhile, Jo Caruana plays to her strengths as a confident, matter-of-fact young woman who knows what she wants from life, while Isabel Warrington, as the only non-Maltese character in the piece, forces the audience to consider the other side of the same coin. In staging this production, I believe Grech and his cast have managed to walk a fine line which is sorely needed locally.

Although both sides of the debate are addressed clearly, I don’t feel like the production lands squarely on either side of the issue.

It doesn’t hold the audience’s hand and tell them what to think; rather it provides them with the materials and encourages them to do the thinking for themselves.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s something we could use more of on this island.