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F'DAN  IL-BAHH  INPENETRABBLI TAT-TEATRU  MALTI
 (2002)

F’dan il-baħħ inpenetrabbli tat-teatru Malti, dan il-vojt imraqqa' bil-qargħ’aħmar ta’ sforzi kultant medjokri, kultant imqanżħin, kultant (rarament) tajbin, jispikka
n-nuqqas totali ta’ sforzi ġenwini u strutturati biex noħorġu  id-dramm Malti għall-beraħ (kompli aqra)

ABOUT THEATRICAL COLONIAL TIME WARPS
AND THE PRICE WE PAY.

Letter to the Independent on Sunday, May 2002.

Dead Playwrights Revisited 

Published in
THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA,  August 11, 2002

Whitewashing the Manoel

In his extremely positive assessment of a recent local  production in English (22.09.02), Victor Fenech concludes by making what I conclude must be an ill-considered remark on the current polemic concerning the now endemic poor state of the Maltese Theatre as far as the production of new plays in Maltese are concerned. Like so many others have done in the past and like so many more find it convenient to do, he assumes that because our extremely gifted and extremely active local theatrical scene has been doing so well outside the sphere of the Manoel Theatre, then there is nothing wrong with theatre in Malta.  Back in 1997, in this very paper, I wrote an article entitled “Theatre in Malta is alive and well and living Off Off Manoel”. (March 1997). So now I go on record once again to confirm that what the local theatrical scene by and large does produce is more than worthy of the eulogies that Victor Fenech gives it. However, one cannot absolve whoever else is responsible for failing to proactively support local Maltese playwrights! The endemic dearth of productions of new original Maltese plays is a disgrace that would shame any self-respecting culture. This is fact, not fiction.

The fact that all effort is directed towards the resuscitation of old foreign masters and the occasional foreign current drama does not absolve anybody from this responsibility. Unfortunately, my good friend Victor Fenech, a veteran of the local theatrical and literary scene, happens to be well aware of the intrigue and personal conflicts that do in fact exist behind the local cultural scene, much as they do in many other cultures. But it is extremely remiss of him to use this as an excuse to whitewash the blame of whoever has for years now failed miserably to live up to their responsibilities. To simply write off the current polemic about the atrocious state of new playwriting productions as simply a deplorable unworthy tiff between egotistical personalities  means by implication that what I have been complaining about can to be pooh-poohed with a shrug of the shoulders. 

If Victor Fenech does not feel offended when the artistic director of the Manoel Theatre states that Maltese theatre literature is simply bad literature supported by friends of friends – a statement which contemptuously writes off half a century of past and current achievements – then I must admit that there really is little hope to expect any change for the better. Even more so, when other writers who have themselves been so summarily dismissed do not bother to speak up and demand an explanation. Victor Fenech’s statement and nonchalant attitude hurt me more because it was precisely this uniquely gifted poet and gentleman  who, back in the late sixties, first inspired me to start writing primarily in Maltese,  at a time when my first ventures in writing were in English.

If his diagnosis of the causes behind the polemic on the moribund state of Maltese playwrighting is in fact to be accepted, it would be ironic (if not poetic justice) that I would finally come to  conclude that writing in Maltese is in fact a fool’s game and deserves all the invectives it gets. The recognition of the Maltese language within the European Community would then indeed be more a cause for shame than pride.

Published in the Sunday Times of Malta
23.09.02

PALK MALTI KONTEMPORANJU