‘I leave it up to the audience to draw whatever may resonate with them’

The Manoel Theatre will stage Is-Surmast by Trevor Zahra in April in a special revival performance three decades after it debuted on the stage of Malta’s national theatre. Directed by Joseph Galea and starring Charles Sammut, this Maltese language comedy-drama is set to be a treat for audiences of all ages.

This three-act play began its life just over 50 years ago as a novel of the same name. The story is set in a Maltese primary school in the early 1970s.

“It was my first novel, and Klabb Kotba Maltin published it as book number 26 in their series,” said Trevor Zahra.

“I generally get quite excited about my work when it gets published, but after a while, I tend to lose interest in it because my mind is already focused on something new.”

However, 20 years after this debut novel was released, it resurfaced.

“Everything happened thanks to the late, brilliant director Carmel S. Aquilina – or Karmenu, as everyone knew him,” said Zahra.

“One day, he asked me, ‘What do you think about adapting Is-Surmast for the stage?’, but I immediately shut the idea down, telling him, ‘Karm, I wrote that 20 years ago, and now I barely remember what I wrote!’

“However, Karmenu persisted, and every Wednesday when he saw me, he would bring up Is-Surmast again. He had envisioned the play before I did and could already see it completed and ready. Slowly, he managed to spark my enthusiasm. And that’s how the play was born.”

Zahra himself is highly fond of the character he created in Carmelo Ciantar.

Is-Surmast focuses on the character of Carmelo Ciantar, an eccentric and lovable headmaster at a primary school, who was willing to ignore the instructions of his superiors in order to allow his school to run the same way he ran his home, based on his own personal whims and following in the footsteps of Santa Filomena.

On his approach to writing – be it for page or stage – Zahra said “in my writing, I never focus on delivering a message. I write about what moves me, what I like or dislike, what disturbs or excites me. Then, I leave it up to the audience to draw from the play whatever resonates with them”.

This performance of Is-Surmast is performed by a formidable local cast including Charles Sammut in the leading role, Mario Spiteri (Snitz), Andre Mangion, Ryan Mark Debattista, Antonella Galea Loffreda, Marceline Galea, Anthony Ellul, Claudia Mizzi, and Emanuel Cassar, along with a number of young performers playing the roles of the school students. The original music is composed by Albert Garzia.

Is-Surmast plays at the Manoel Theatre from April 4-6. For tickets and more info visit teatrumanoel.mt/event/is-surmast/.