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THE MALTA DRAMA CENTRE TO PERFORM IN TUNISIA
THE MALTA DRAMA CENTRE will be performing in Sousse, Tunisia at the forthcoming
International Theatre Festival to be held between March 1 – 6. The Centre
will be staging two performances of a new piece, Eros-Tanatos u l-Klawn, devised
and directed by Albert Marshall in Maltese. The project has been undertaken
in collaboration with the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts.
“The performance is highly visual,” says Mario Azzopardi, the Centre’s
principal, “but we have also decided to present it in Maltese, given the
emphasis that the European Union, for instance, is giving to the notion of linguistic
and cultural diversity.” Mr. Azzopardi explains that the linguistic perspective
is endorsed both by the Malta Drama Centre and the Malta Council for Culture
and the Arts. “The Sousse Festival, a prestigious event of long standing,
is an ideal event where to present the dynamics of our contemporary dramatic
idiom in Maltese, Europe’s only Semitic tongue, “ adds Azzopardi.
Eros-Tanatos u l-Klawn is a sardonic commentary on the absurdity of the human
condition. From the pangs of birth we indulge in the life instinct sources of
the libido, which stands for creative, life-preserving drives. Then we enter
into the cycles of the wheel of death and give in to the grotesque evanescence
of our existence.
A common thread through this three act comedy is the Clown image – the
tragicomic superhero who can represent even Belzebub himself. This Clown seems
to have been around at the time of the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe.
There are scads of images that place him in the farthest-flung corners of that
universe, where he seems to have been deified by the native populations of numerous
planets. In many of these far-off places, the present-day populations bear a
marked physical resemblance to the Clown, since wherever he has acquired adoring
followers, he has encouraged and presided over ritual ceremonies with feminine
connotation.
Explains director Albert Marshall: “The Clown – everyperson –
has only thanatos to answer to. The rest is a constant celebration of life.
While the sound of dripping water threatens, while it grows into a menacing
column of water of thanatos proportions, ‘clown’ enacts his ‘eros’
with irresistible grace. He withstands birth-mirth-and-death until piercing
phone rings freeze the action , and life’s montage passes on to its next
phase.”
A troupe of seven actors and actresses, including regular and extended-programme
students attending the Malta Drama Centre will be making it to Tunisia to present
the Maltese entry. Eros-Tanatos u l-Klawn will then be staged for the general
public in Malta after the closure of the Festival.
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PHOTO: A detail from Joseph P. Smith’s poster for Eros-Tanatos
u l-Klawn by The Malta Drama Centre
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