"Il-Festa bil-Bandieri"
The first
play put on by the Manoel Theatre
Management Committee in the
2003-2004 season as part of its new
Maltese original drama program
Elsa
Romei, Roberta Curmi and
Mark Spiteri
Photos
Mario Mintoff/O Calleja.
Poster above: O Calleja.
Flying the flag of
Maltese Theatre
Revamping and harrumphing
this
historical
year of our lives.
The end of the 2003-2004 theatrical
season could have been a watershed year. After the bangs and thunder of the
past two years or so during which there was much ado about... nobody seems
to acknowledge exactly what, there seemed to have been achieved a
groundbreaking (sic) compromise as to what could possibly formalise the
concept as to what our national theatre season
could be like. After a lot of chest-beating and harrumphing, a modicum of
reason seemed to have won the day; between October of 2002 and end of the 2002-2003 season anybody who scanned our papers and other multifarious media
would have been hard-pressed not to have been duly informed by the Manoel
Theatre that it was in fact re-thinking its commitment to local drama (i.e.
original drama in the local vernacular) and would henceforth be promoting,
subsiding, funding and bolstering the medium to the tune of
two original new
productions per season. No effort was spared to publicize the fact. And true
to their word, our National did in fact live up to this commitment. Myself
being the first one to have benefited from this "innovation", I have first
hand knowledge as to how we lived (or survived) this experience. But that's
another story.
From "Il-Festa bil-Bandieri"
Roberta Curmi
Early assessment - or
post-mortem?
End of May saw
another commendable decision taken by the Manoel Theatre management to
try to do an early assessment (not a post-mortem, one hopes) as to what has in fact been achieved this past
season and what could be improved. One must point out that those who like me
attended the debate were hardly numerous. Perhaps the
inappropriateness of advertising the event as a reassement of
"LoggiaPalk" put a lot of us off the scent. LoggiaPalk (a horse of a totally
different colour) was not responsible for the new Manoel Theatre policy
regarding original Maltese drama; nor was it responsible, (as advertised)
to put on the
plays of Ebejer, yours truly, Anthony Portelli and Joe
Friggieri during the past two seasons. (This year, as far as I am aware, LoggiaPalk's
and its euphemistically-referred-to-as play readings were essentially absent.)
The two and a half hour meeting did
not in fact even mention LoggiaPalk at all. Instead the debate ran more or less
on, once again, why Maltese drama does not seem to top anybody's agenda.
(barring that of some playwrights). Two topics seem to me to
have been worth lingering on: a, the initial comment by Alfred
Buttigieg (new to Manoel Theatre management) concerning the necessity of
better marketing Maltese plays, and, b, the appropriateness or not of
channeling some effort, and I assume funding, towards resuscitating the
practically extinct art of radioplay broadcasting (championed by Tony
Cassar Darien).
Marketing, a non-issue
Alas, the debate about
marketing did not seem to mature much. I believe it was by far the
most obvious point to develop, but once I brought up for consideration the
specific funding and expertise needed to accomplish this, a stone wall
seemed to arise and block further discussion. Instead it was dropped
back into the laps of the hapless actors, producers, authors, et al
who were told (more or less) they should skip to it and go out there and drag people in to
see their plays... The concept of a professional (like?) approach and
appropriate funding was dropped like a veritable hot-potato.
Someday, someone will have the guts to take this particular bull by the
horns. It is lamentable that after the brouhaha about proclaiming to all and
sundry what the Manoel theatre intended to do with its new play
program this season, when it came to actually launch the event, there was dead silence.
The launching and presentation of the 2003-2004 season skimmed over,
avoided, neglected and generally ignored the momentous, sic, occasion. Same
goes for when the plays were actually going into production. Marketing
indeed.
Educating the masses... with radio plays?
Instead attention was turned to the suggestion (albeit with equal short shrift) that one should perhaps reconsider the resuscitation of radio plays. All this in the name of the grand crusade "to enhance the value of the Maltese spoken language now so bastardized by the local media" (my quotes - but one gets the gist). Myself a product of the radio play culture of the fifties and sixties I more than appreciate the value of this medium. I truly love it. Yet I believe it would be a grave mistake not to recognize the signs of the times. If radio plays have been dropped from local media it is for a good reason. The now limited and fragmented audience of our radio stations makes them "profitable" no longer. Gone are the thousands and thousands of listeners of the golden years of Rediffusion. And if some fifty years of radio play listening leave us today still decrying the fact we need to "educate" (how I hate that word) the Maltese people to love (sic) their native language, I do not see how putting on a couple more plays in the present media-barraged environment is going to "educate" anybody.
This red-herring must die. Be done
with. Scavenging even one-pennies worth from the often lamentable poor
funding of the live-staging of new Maltese plays would be a crime. Put
that money into marketing, rather.
Persevere we must
Alas, our cultural cringe syndrome persists.
But one must persevere. The "new" Manoel theatre policy regarding Maltese
drama has survived one year. Let's not start dragging our feet already.
Focus on the marketing. Drop dead weights like the Francis Ebejer
Competition. The king is dead. Accept it. Focus on strategy on how to
garnish the effort of new playwrights. Seek new blood. Proclaiming "we need
a new Francis Ebejer" with one breathe and claiming "Maltese theatre does
not need prophets (viz: writers)" with the next, is a reflection of the utter
chaos and insincerity which still prevails.
Yes, the 2003-2004 season just might have been a watershed year for European
Malta. But, would anybody have been any wiser in the theatre?s
t
June 2004
INIDIĊI TA' L-ARKIVJU
Θ
MANIFEST '72
Θ
THE NEED OF A
CONTEMPORARY THEATRE
Θ
ANSEJTÀ
U ANESTESIJA
Θ
LIVING OFF-OFF MANOEL
Θ
F'DAN IL-BAĦĦ
Θ
THEATRICAL COLONIAL
TIME WARPS
Θ
DEAD PLAYWRIGHTS
REVISITED
Θ
WHITEWASHING
THE MANOEL
Θ
GĦAX HEMM PALK MALTI
Θ
THE CULTURAL CRINGE
Θ
KWISTJONI TA'
MASTURBAZZJONI
Θ
FLYINGTHE FLAG
Θ
GĦAŻLA ĠENETIKA
Θ
DWAR
IL-PALK MALTI
LLUM
Joe Cortis - Mark Spiteri
Francesca Vincenti -Mark Spiteri.