Performances

After the success of sold out children’s opera Il-Qtates ta’ max-Xatt in 2019, this heartwarming production is back — but this time, it’s been reinvented into a children’s puppet show!

The sensitive subject of loss will be explored through a group of stray cats who struggle to come to terms with the ‘disappearance’ of one of the most important people in their life. Based on the book of Clare Azzopardi, Il-Qtates ta’ max-Xatt invites audiences, young and old, to indulge in this devised interpretation of a story that explores one of children’s greatest fears through the cheerful mediums of puppetry and song.

This project is based on a text by Franca Rame and Dario Fo, inspired by the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Franca Rame and Dario Fo used theatre for political and social activism and this performance is no different.

Teatru Malta have taken the original text and adapted it as a D.I.Y. performance for you to experience. It is designed to convey the message that society works on patriarchal principles and in many ways treats women as objects. It explores the ways in which society and capitalism use women for pleasure and profit. It touches on the juxtaposition of capitalism and the women’s liberation movement, with the irony of capitalism profiting from the idea of a ‘free woman’, for example through pornography.

Fortunata was born with a silver spoon in her mouth but nothing about her life is particularly fortunate. Her mother died giving birth to her. Her father never remarried, for sinister reasons of his own. Now that he has died, Fortunata lives alone in a big wealthy mansion that is rife with sorrow and regret. Her one companion is Archie, a butler with benefits who contradicts her every decision.

Fortunata decides to invite a group of young people to her house to make them rich and asks them for a small favour in return. Archie is furious and warns her that her money will be wasted on those philistines. She risks creating a group of nouveaux riches whose only interest will be to spend the money rather than do anything worthwhile with it.

This Autumn, literary legend Oliver Friggieri’s writings will be brought to life. Inspired by the life and work of Oliver Friggieri who passed away last year and his admiration of Dun Karm Psaila, on the 150th anniversary of the national poet’s birth, this dance-theatre piece devised and directed by Sean Buhagiar and co-produced by Teatru Manoel and Teatru Malta will study and celebrate the work of two of Malta’s most beloved writers. 

Each spring and autumn, during the birds’ migratory seasons, the namra takes hold of around 4000 Maltese trappers who long to sit in nature at dawn waiting for the songbirds. ‘Namra’ is a Maltese word that is best described as meaning “a lifelong passion”; “a folly that appears all but incomprehensible to the casual observer”. Namra is believed to be inherited.

Song of a Bird (S.O.A.B.) is an ongoing research project, which has to date, consisted of live performances, an audio-visual installation and an online archive of cultural practice. It is the fruit of a collaboration between the artist and his father, and a micro-community of Maltese bird-trappers.