The sudden appearance of ribbons wrapped around the trunks of trees across Malta is part of a marketing campaign for a performance by Malta’s national theatre company Teatru Malta, not a sign of the trees’ impending uprooting.

Online commenters expressed alarm at finding several mature trees across the country marked with a pink ribbon, wondering whether they were being marked for removal or perhaps part of an elaborate protest.

Marked trees were spotted all over Malta, with some reporting seeing them in Birkirkara, Mosta, Naxxar and Żabbar, amongst other localities.

Teatru Malta's Artistic Director Sean Buhagiar told Times of Malta that this is part of an awareness campaign for the upcoming performance of Dik is-Siġra f’Nofs ta’ Triq, a theatre performance that will be staged as part of the Malta International Arts Festival in June.

Describing the performance as “theatre activism”, Buhagiar argued that “it is important for the national theatre company to have its finger on the pulse”.

“This is a story using magical realism to create awareness about the environment, trees and the current climate situation.”

Marketing material for the performance suggests that it will explore the relationship between a community's past, present and future, with the “pressures and false promises of progress causing pressure on the local community”.

Written by prolific writer Immanuel Mifsud and directed by Chris Gatt and Paul Portrelli, the performance marks Teatru Malta’s first collaboration with Teatru Anon, one of Malta’s most prolific independent theatre organisations.

This is not the first time that Teatru Malta’s promotional campaigns have raised eyebrows. The campaign for a 2019 performance called Min Hi?, in which a masked performer roamed the streets of several towns smashing the faces of dolls, led some startled residents to call the police and alert local councils.