"Currently waiting by the wings for my cue . . . in the meantime I'm in a period of daily learning, through occasional artistic encounters, while humbly keeping Socrates' instruction in mind to 'know thyself'."
This was the only theatre performance and in Maltese from the whole festival programme this year. Saw this with my sibling on the very last night of the festival, and as an audience member I got to support Leanne Ellul, another good friend of mine and in the arts, who was involved in this production. She wrote up the script and then passed it on to the director Marta Vella.
For a play that depended solely on the two actors Jamie Cardona and Ronald Briffa as the slightly estranged brothers it delivered plenty. The lines gave punch in humour and emotion, the contrasts of character was well delivered and truly human.
The development of the story equally so as their characters directly and indirectly help each other, not only out of their grief of losing their parents so suddenly but also out of their personal inhibitions. The businessman older brother Alex needed to get out of a dead-end relationship, out of the superficial 'responsibilities' of work in London and focus on a better, more worthy responsibility; taking care of Pete his younger brother while getting him out of his shell to follow his baking passion.
A good amount was delivered within that limited time of 50 minutes; my sibling certainly enjoyed and for someone who's not so interested in theatre that says alot. The plot didn't seem like it was trying to compensate for lack of other characters present. In a way, the two characters were good instruments for the playwright to be able to weave the other characters into the audience's imagination. One brother mentioning a classmate or another mimicking their father or recalling their mother's kindness didn't feel tedious at all.
Most especially in the strong vulnerable scene where Pete suffers an anxiety attack; it brought more sensitively into full circle the direct impact of the tragedy, his outpouring of being able to grieve and how this displays right there what happened that day which then developed Pete's sense of guilt. That was a brilliant written scene to bring the brothers closer.
I salute to Leanne for creating a brilliant piece of work, to Marta who executed an active and seamless vision with the simple devices used at hand, and to the actors who supported each other really well to bring this production together to even gain the interest of older audiences.
The Wishing Thread
One of the prominent installations in Ziguzajg that most of us assistants had a good number of rounds; it served to be an experience for those young and old writing up the wishes, intended to instigate hope for good in the future and appreciate the environment in the green scenery. Situated
in front of the new Parliament building (with Stefania seen above), at
Castille Place opposite St James Cavalier and at St George's Square, all
within Valletta.
It also served as an experience for us assistant on our end, not just receiving them and tying them up for them but in encountering and meeting various stories in those encounters waiting to be told.
They were even, for me personally, encountering diverse people from various walks of life, a story inspiration waiting to happen. I had the pleasure to meet Manala, the creator behind this installation, during one of my rounds at Republic Street.
How ever accurate the myth really is about, the adaptation into the installation was well transformed into that floral eye-catching sight children (and tourists) would be drawn to. They would write a wish of good will for others on paper tags provided, and then tie their wishes onto the woolen string woven into the potted local flora.
Later on during the week I've learned,
and managed to share with the public,
that by the end of the festival
all the written wishes
would be collected
and archived.
The installation I'm certain did encourage 'wishers' to keep hope alive while appreciating nature.
As I said earlier it created a unique experience for us assistants,
especially through the people I personally encountered.
In the midst of bombastic bus-cades from freshly toga-ed graduates, air horns and all
- in the midst of young 'veteran' wishers looking for theirs tied in plastic coverings
- and the friendly reunions of young acquaintances
Il piccolo Damone e sua famiglia. At my "Parliament shift", this young Italian family came up, I thought they were tourists but they've been residing in Malta, for over a year I believe. They perused some of the tied wishes, with the father holding the cutest few-month-old baby boy, eyes bright turquoise blue, his whole outfit was blue right up to his beanie hat with ears sown on top.
"I am four months old; this year I will be celebrating my first Christmas. So my wish will be that all the little children like me will receive the joy and happiness that Christmas always brings!".
During one of the boisterous buscades at Castille Place, an American architect student got interested in the installation in the midst of rambunctious whistles. Seeming close to my age, she's from Washington DC, studying at Pennsylvania, currently in Rome who is on holiday in Malta to see St John's Co-Cathedral.
In passing her a festival program she got her interested in the events going on AND she made a good choice that same evening in seeing TAG which were among the performances I recommended to her that were going on that day, and this was when I got to watch it a second time.
There was also this affectionate and enthusiastic American family from DC who were having a self-planned family holiday in a few countries, where Malta was their penultimate stop, before going to Sicily and then back home.
The paper tags helped me again this time, as the mother asked what sights to see within Valletta, to get them to the Co-Cathedral to see Caravaggio's 'Beheading of St John', which intrigued her as it turned out she had studied art in college and had covered a little on Caravaggio. It had definitely felt good that day to recommended this to the family, as they seemed to like winging it on holidays - which has its merits as much as a plan, but it would have been a shame for them to have missed it, especially for the art grad.
