A year into the pandemic, the show is most certainly going on with Toi Toi, Teatru Manoel’s education programme. The members of this year’s Teatru Manoel Youth Theatre (TMYT) cohort continued their training throughout this difficult year and are now ready to tread the boards with Pjazza Pastizzi, a commedia that promises to cheer up even the gloomiest of spectators.

Pjazza Pastizzi is a devised comedy, created entirely by the young actors following TMYT’s training programme that falls under the Teatru Manoel education programme, Toi Toi.

A devised comedy script is created collectively by a group of actors who improvise and keep the parts they like, developing them further until a script is created. A year into a pandemic that has upended everyone’s life, TMYT’s actors felt that comedy would be an apt antidote to the stress of living through a prolonged crisis.

“We wanted to take our minds off the tough COVID times we are passing through at the moment,” they said. “We wanted to put up light-hearted, Maltese-themed commedia, certain to bring smiles to the audience’s faces.”

Pjazza Pastizzi, directed by Dr Michael Richardson, is set in a typical Maltese village square, as the name suggests. As the name also suggests, pastizzi were a starting point, and the concept was also inspired by the locals gathering in the pjazza for their activities. “We started the process by picking our favourite traditional local figures, such as Tal-Pastizzi and Tad-Doughnuts, as well as priests and politicians,” the actors said, explaining how they came up with the concept.

“These characters were slowly developed and matched with each other, which naturally formed small scenes mainly based on improvisation.” In fact, the comedy features a mix of local characters ranging from some of dubious reputation to others representing the upper class.

Antidote to stress of living through a prolonged crisis

The troupe purposely chose Maltese stock characters because they felt the audience would be familiar with them. While the students were in charge of writing and developing the commedia, artist Isabel Warrington was tasked with creating the costumes and props, which were made using mostly recycled and reused items.

Commedia used to be an extremely popular genre with the Maltese, especially that drawing on local culture, but that seems to have changed. “These shows tend to not be so common anymore as other theatre genres have risen in popularity,” the Pjazza Pastizzi cast said.

“We therefore wanted to revive commedia and give it a personal and local twist. Pjazza Pastizzi is another performance in 2021 that can be watch­ed live at Teatru Manoel, which we consider a further step in heading towards normality.”

The Manoel Theatre. Photo: Brian Grech

Normality is undoubtedly what everyone is looking forward to, but it would have been impossible for the show to avoid mentioning the virus that took the world by storm.

“We wanted to detach ourselves from the pandemic as much as possible, and to totally immerse ourselves in the whimsical Maltese environment we’ve created,” they said. “However, not bringing it up, especially since it is such a prominent part of life in Malta right now, would have been a missed opportunity.”

Richardson added: “Over the last few months, the actors have not only developed their skills in physicality and comedy writing, but also they have worked on many features of the show that would often be carried out by other people, such as stage management and prop-making. Some have also taken an active role in marketing the production. It has been an honour to work with them.”

Pjazza Pastizzi will include all the ingredients of an unforgettable show: drama, laughter, extravagant costumes, and Maltese song interludes in between. That is not to say that caution has been thrown to the wind.

Teatru Manoel made sure to minimise any risk to their patrons by taking strict COVID measures. There will be six shows over three days, with small, socially distanced audiences allowed in each show. All you need to do is buy your ticket to Pjazza Pastizzi, the funniest village square on the island.

Teatru Manoel Youth Training programme is generously sponsored by the Bank of Valletta, enabling young artists to experience professional training free of charge.

Performances of TMYT’s Pjazza Pastizzi will be held at Teatru Manoel on March 19, 20 and 21. For more information and for booking, visit https://www.teatrumanoel.org.mt.