The Manoel Theatre

In his contributions to the media Tony Cassar, administrator at the Manoel Theatre, persists in presenting a distorted version of facts and reality. I will comment on points he raised in this newspaper on August 25 and September 1.

1. "Technical drama reports in Malta are unheard of."

Such an omission incriminates the Manoel Theatre itself. It should be this theatre's responsibility to inform the public on the state of the art form, its expectations, its criteria for choice and its strategies.

It should also be responsible for issuing detailed assessment reports to authors who submit their scripts for production. Recently, the Manoel's chairman informed a leading playwright the Drama Committee refused to issue a report on why his new work in the vernacular was blocked.

Another key author submitting a new play never even received an acknowledgement. This year, at the height of the controversy that spilled in the media, he tried again, received three short sentences claiming that his play was "interesting" and his play was shelved indefinitely. There was no "technical report" and no further explanations.

2. "When a National Drama Company was formed in 1985 there were only four drama companies servicing the Manoel Theatre and nepotism reigned supreme. The lead roles were aimed for the freshly motivated MTADA graduates."

This is incorrect. At the time there were at least eight operating drama companies, with actors crossing over from one group to the other, precisely as happens today.

Moreover, in the Eighties, the Ministry of Education and the Manoel Academy of Dramatic Art (MTADA) staged their own productions, including works by Francis Ebejer.

I was assigned with the direction of the third production staged by the National Drama Company (NDC) in the form of a musical-drama based on the historic events of 1919.

Written by realist playwright Guzè Chetcuti, the production involved some 70 actors and actresses, besides a strong technical crew. The only criteria for selection were talent and a keen sense of commitment.

It is definitely not correct to claim that the lead roles were distributed to fresh MTADA graduates. On my cast list I had seasoned actors like John Suda, Elsa Romei, Lino Grech, Ninette Micallef, Nadine Azzopardi, Anna Beck, Anthony Ellul, Joe (Zep) Camilleri, Michael Tabone and a host of others, even from drama groups in suburbs and villages.

A betraying phrase in the quote above from Mr Cassar Darien is "serving the Manoel Theatre". One should notice here the endemic passive role of the Manoel: rather than service the cause of national drama, it expects to be serviced.

3. "The notion of national theatre has fallen into the doldrums with the current buzzwords reflecting the trend of the arts towards globalisation."

False again. The Manoel Theatre administration has been doing its utmost to circulate this fabrication. National theatre programmes continue to flourish internationally, from Western Europe to the Eastern zone, from Britain, France, Italy and Germany to Slovenia, Croatia and the Czech Republic, from north to south, from Scandinavia to Cyprus, from Finland to Indonesia, from Canada to Australia.

It appears that it is only the Manoel Theatre that selects to abrogate its responsibilities towards the vernacular and relevant expression of dramatic art. The prevailing scenario ensures that the role of the Manoel remains restricted to drawing out a hiring schedule, resulting in a monotonous calendar of events fed to a condescending and an extremely limited sector of the population.

Moreover, Mr Cassar Darien keeps changing the real reason/s as to why the National Drama Company ceased to exist. His original version, sustained until about two years ago, was that the Manoel Theatre saw in the NDC "a proposal for an indigenous theatre, both historically and socially relevant".

But there were those who, according to Mr Cassar Darien, "became confused, grew suspicious and felt threatened". The gentleman used to elaborate that these same people (whom he never mentioned by name) had become "afraid that their throne would be cracking... and therefore they aimed the fire of hell at the National Drama Company".

According to this thesis, the works staged by the NDC were "too controversial" and the socio-historical content embarrassed the drama coterie who "refused to look at themselves in a mirror". Mr Cassar Darien had deducted that "Maltese patrons were not yet ready for the indigenous experiment" and that "pressure from all sides brought (the NDC) project to an end after a couple of years".

All this is recorded in my M.Phil. dissertation on Theatre and Community Action, where I quote Mr Cassar Darien verbatim. Perhaps one should ask the gentleman whether, 17 years down the road, "the indigenous experiment" is still frightening people and raising suspicions about the collapse of vulnerable thrones.

4. "In today's world of theatre, the pursuit of excellence is certainly not synonymous with (theatre) nationalistic monoliths."

This is yet another myth in the making. The Report of the Independent Working Group for the establishment of a National Theatre in Scotland (2001), for instance, puts forward the case, in no equivocal terms, for "a dynamic national theatre culture".

The report does not mince words: "The Scottish National Theatre should commission and initiate works of excellence on a variety of scales and tour them to all parts of Scotland."

The remit also obliges the national theatre to "stimulate an audience development strategy by raising the profile of theatre as an art-form, setting a reliable standard of excellence and supporting new creative enterprise".

The Manoel Theatre may wish to take note.

5. "We want to liberate future generations from thinking that one may make it theatrically on the back of some government institution."

In the highly competitive field of theatre one "makes it" on the ticket of one's artistic merits, talents and perseverance. Otherwise decline and fall are inevitable.

But to focus on Mr Cassar Darien's ideas, they are in stark contrast to what happens in the local music sector, where the Government invests hundreds of thousands of liri each year to sustain the 40-odd members forming the National Orchestra.

It should be noted that, in this case, the word nazzjonali has not "fallen into the doldrums" and is in no way discredited by the administration of the Manoel Theatre. More importantly, Mr Cassar Darien's position also contradicts what happens internationally, in that theatre programmes seek ways to maximise incomes without trying to neutralise the financial responsibilities of the state.

All European cultural policies, for example, identify the respective governments' resources for sustaining and consolidating national theatre initiatives, including outreach strategies. This does not, on the other hand, preclude in any way private companies from gestating theatre production in any form or fashion.

6. "The Manoel (Theatre) is being projected internationally as the oldest Baroque public theatre in Europe... (and this) would be symbolically adequate to deter expectations in new breakthroughs in drama writing."

This is an incredibly pathetic argument, where the Manoel represents prohibition rather than expansion of vision and form. Such a patronising attitude is warning playwrights and directors that they should not expect the Manoel to detach itself from the fundamentally classicising temper of the 17th century.

And yet, in stark contradiction to its own statements, the Manoel has no worries in staging unplugged, electronic concerts. Moreover, the Manoel's latest "Baroque argument" clamorously contradicts the posture assumed by Mr Cassar Darien in favour of what is "new", "fearless" and "brave" in the theatre.

Words and actions are not always happy bedfellows.

7. "Society has a lot to gain by utilising theatre as the thinking man's political podium."

More words. Once he makes this point in his contribution of September 1, the Manoel Theatre representative launches a scathing attack on anything that resembles a committed script.

He reiterates that a dramatist should go along with the market forces, treating society as a "business partner". Such is the league of contradictions coming from the Manoel Theatre spokesman and such is "the purity of theatre" propagated by an institution codified by a self-indulgent mind-set that has knocked flat all motivation in Maltese authors.

8. "Local theatre literature is really bad writing but with literary pretensions tagged onto it by friends of friends."

It is up to the writers, the literary associations and the drama/literary critics to comment on such incrimination. But one should ask why, then, has the Manoel Theatre whipped up such massive hype for its monthly play-readings by Maltese authors, including work by the Manoel's own Cassar Darien, in front of a restricted audience of some 50-odd friends?

Such positioning continues to defy any logic one may wish to look for in the submissions the Manoel's spokesman has made to this newspaper. What is evident is that Mr Cassar Darien has dumped, with a stroke of the pen, the contributions made to Maltese theatre by authors like Guzè Diacono, Chetcuti, Ebejer, Oreste Calleja, Doreen Micallef, Alfred Sant, Lino Sant, Joe Friggieri, Oliver Friggieri, Joe Vella Bondin, Vince Vella and others.

9. "(New foreign plays) seen at the Manoel in past seasons all involve three actors (and) one set."

Significantly, the Manoel's spokesman omits productions like that offered by Cheek by Jowl Company. Basically, the three-actor performance has to do with financial allowances and does not represent any rule.

Tom Stoppard's new trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, is a nine-hour epic about Russian revolutionaries. It swerves from country estates in the motherland to salons, barricades, promenades and artists' quarters, from Moscow to Paris and the Isle of Wight, and parades no fewer than 90 speaking characters.

As Lloyd Richards, president of the Communications Group (USA), put it, the search for economical, small-cast, single-set plays will discourage playwrights from thinking beyond those limitations and will encourage directors to eliminate options. A national theatre should not block artists from dreaming the dream.

One hardly needs reminding Mr Cassar Darien that the Manoel opts to stage lyrical operas costing large amounts of money, sustaining consistently heavy losses and involving scores of artists. This activity is attached to the personal preferences of those who decide on the Manoel's repertory.

10. "The Pinna Francis Ebejer (drama contest) is a damp squib."

Another inconsistent reference. Mr Cassar Darien has openly and frequently declared that he is the mentor of the author who emerged as winner of the last edition of this drama competition, organised by the Department of Culture.

On top of that, in the wake of mounting pressure to stage local drama, the Manoel announced it will undertake to resume the production of winning entries to this contest as from next year.

11. "The launching of the National Theatre's seasonal programme... has already sparked off international attention..."

This is pure, unadulterated illusion or self-inflicted national mockery. What "international attention"? The claim is trapped in a thick frame of rhetoric and contains layers of empty language.

On what performances is this "international" (sic) attention focused? Would this "international attention" allow the same productions staged at the Manoel Theatre to be repeated in national venues in Europe and the United States?

How many native drama performances have the "international" sources attended? Are we sure these "international" sources do not represent the friends-of-friends syndrome?

Other questions are pertinent. For instance, how can the Manoel's spokesman write of "a national theatre" and at the same time thrash indigenous writers? How can you speak of "a national theatre" and do nothing to promote the professional development of the national idiom?

A national theatre programme should support the advancement of theatrical arts, encouraging work in all forms and styles. It should take the initiative to support the work of individual artists, reach out to the peripheries and activate measures to improve the theatrical environment in which artistic excellence can occur.

The Manoel Theatre has not conceived one exemplary project that advances the dramatic art form or increase audience appreciation and understanding, nor has it allotted any budget for creative-programme funding. It is imagination that created theatre and the Manoel has very insufficient quantities of this determining ingredient.

The Manoel prefers to serve no more than a presenting function. It is no artistic home or nurturing institution and does nothing for artistes to explore and move towards growth.

Earlier this year I met Mr Cassar Darien in his office and he lambasted his "drama committee", accusing the "members" of having no structure, no plan and no vision for the national theatre.

The gentleman complained that they don't even read submitted scripts and that they are letting the Manoel Theatre appear naked, like the legendary Emperor.