No one presents the ghostly form quite like Henry James, and Tyrone Grima and Sharon Bezzina’s latest theatrical piece Għanqbut f’Moħħha, playing at the Valletta Campus Theatre between April 14 and 16, gave due homage to the great American writer.

The original piece, inspired by James’ short story The Way It Came (1896), is an exploration of fear and obsession through the devices of physical theatre.

It centres on the tragic and mysterious death of the protagonist’s parents and the tendrils that reach out from this affecting the whole community. As Isabel (Bezzina) reopens the antiques shop where her parents met their end, she stirs the ghosts of the past and the anguish of the present.

Perhaps to guard against the torment of reopening such a deep wound, Isabel employs the eerie guard Peter (Miguel Formosa) to keep watch over the shop and not let anyone enter the part where her parents died. He whistles and hobbles around the shop, his knowing eyes ablaze.

A scene from the play.

Ralph (André Mangion) is particularly affected by the bewildering turn of events that take place since the shop’s reopening. We first meet him embracing Isabel, his future wife, and playfully running around with her. We then see him turn ghostly white at the sight of some unknown vision, with Isabel and Peter, in a beautifully choreographed bit, trying to keep him from getting too close to this invisible spectre.

We see Isabel’s best friend Milly (Sarah Lee Zammit) first at the beginning of the play when we witness her descent into madness. She and Ralph have a fear of photographs in common, as noted by Isabel, who becomes more fixated on this point as the play goes on. Perhaps the old belief that cameras steal their subjects’ souls is not entirely unfounded (‘Miss Havisham’, I wrote in my notes).

It is always heartening when a work of theatre manages to be surprising

The journalist Harry (Bradley Cachia) tries to piece events together. A mirror of the audience, we learn of things as he does. He becomes increasingly involved with the people he investigates, even having a near fatal spat with Peter in his own obsessive search.

The short piece required many leaps of faith from the audience – we needed to accept that Isabel’s paranoia was sound, that she would lose her fiancé once he meets her best friend, despite having little reason to believe it otherwise. When it does happen, however, we are completely convinced.

The original piece is inspired by Henry James’ short story 'The Way It Came'.

Physical theatre is most successful when it is surprising. This was clearly felt when we saw Peter cross the threshold into the forbidden part of the antiques shop only to show up in a mirror on the other end of the room, his reflection facing the audience – a gwardjan who sees everything.

The smell of what I thought was peppermint was also a surprising feature, as was a light projection emulating a rope as Isabel fell deeper into despair.

Grima’s direction, bolstered by workshops in physical theatre by the American company Piper Theatre, led to an interesting and innovative production. It is always heartening when a work of theatre manages to be surprising.