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L-ISKRIPT
tad-dramm
nota dwar l-użu |
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Inconceivable as it might seem, some fifty years after independence,
Maltese theatre has not more than a few (less than a handful) of plays
which one can positively identify as located and belonging to a pretty
much specific decade of our recent history - only a couple plays can in
fact be reliable sources as to what the Maltese experience of the recent past has in fact been.
Contemporary Maltese Drama is in fact a
contradiction in terms - a paradoxically inaccurate definition and
misnomer. More often than not you will find a new play which exists
only in a fictitious Malta (and you assume it is Malta because characters
have a Maltese name and speak Maltese!) - a Malta which occupies an ephemeral time and space. Steeped in the
colonialistically nurtured tradition of
always harping back to a "glorious" historic past, our
theatrical literary artists often seem to find easier courage in trying to delve
in obscure, practically unverifiable and conjectural causes of the Maltese
nation, mythologising the distant past that is conveniently unrelated to
the present issues but for a tenuous documented paper path that is only
meaningful to the few academically minded purveyors. It is by far easier
to castigate and flagellate a couple of centuries old tyrannical power (be
it temporal or spiritual) for the oppression of the Maltese people, than it
is to narrow down the focus to the present and not too distant past.
or to try to identify the sometimes still surviving witnesses of
yesterday. A meaningful PUBLIC, precise, self -assessment has never been the
strong point of the Maltese psyche.
Looking back,
I see Ċens Perpetwu as the first play that I wrote which
anticipates the type of plays I did eventually return back to in the
Nineties with a series of three act plays for the stage. They are
basically naturalistic plays, with a touch of the surreal. Above
all, they are plays which spring naturally from the present day Maltese
experience they aim at recreating - the type of play which I believe will one day be the backbone of a true
Maltese theatre which regretably seems to be fading further and further
back in the conscious memory of our audiences - the type of
play which could give credibility and recognition to a
National theatre - a credibility and recognition which by and large the
present theatrical entrepreneurs are only prepared to give to foreign
drama.
Ċens Perpetwu was the forefather of the plays that
followed in the nineties, with Għasfur
taċ-Ċomb bridging the gap between
the seventies and the end of the century, whilst Il-Belliegħa fil-Bir, U l-Anġlu
Ħabbar..., and Pawlu Redux span the last ten years of
the 20th century, which is brought to a fitting conclusion with Il-Festa
bil-Bandieri - an "olografu evokattiv"
dedicated to "Malta Millennarja".
OC
January 2002
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M.A. CENTRE for DRAMA - 2001
Scenes from
ĊENS PERPETWU
A collage presentation
by the graduating class of
2001 of
4 DRAMMI
under the direction of
Paul Portelli
iN RETROSPECT,
always in
retrospect.
Identifying the
unidentifiable
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Ċens Perpetwu
