Theatre attendance up 13%

The curtain has come down on a successful season at the Manoel Theatre, with a welcome increase of 13 per cent in overall attendance, its artistic director Tony Cassar Darien said.

While drama attendances for the 2001/2002 season soared by eight per cent over the previous season, it was opera that stole the show with an overwhelming increase of 25 per cent.

Mr Cassar Darien said that while opera at the Manoel was becoming popular with local audiences, this year it had also started to generate enthusiasm abroad.

"The fourth edition of the BOV Opera Festival is making noise abroad and for the first time this year was featured in several prestigious international magazines," he said.

Malta and Manoel Theatre's operatic season were highlighted in an extensive two-page article on Opera, the international magazine.

The straight-talking magazine was generous in its praise for Malta, saying: "One thing that hasn't previously attracted visitors is opera. Yet in this respect this little island has a trump card to play in the form of the Teatru Manoel, a gem of a venue tucked away in the heart of Valletta."

The article also heaped praise on 24-year-old tenor Joseph Calleja, describing him as Malta's "new star" and "golden boy".

The article, penned by Graeme Kay, ended by saying that a "full and enthusiastic audience suggests that the professional opera habit in Malta should be thoroughly encouraged".

Malta's operatic movement was also featured this year in a two-page spread on the German magazine Das Opera Glas.

Meanwhile, drama has also fared well and attendances have been going up every year since a 12 per cent drop was recorded in 1998.

The two most popular performances in terms of attendances both happened to be comedies - Theft, directed by Herman Grech and staged by MADC, and Look No Hans, directed by Chris Gatt and staged by FM Theatre Productions.

While Theft filled 87 per cent of theatre seats, Look No Hans had 81 per cent.

This year MADC's Christmas pantomime, Robin Hood Meets Babes in the Woods, directed by Steve Casaletto, saw a 77 per cent attendance, tying with the classic modern comedy Memory of Water staged by Theatreworx and directed by Chris Gatt.

"Though there were not many on offer this season, comedies continue to be popular and I think it was the entire package for a good night out which made them so popular," Mr Cassar Darien said.

Mr Cassar Darien said the audience seemed to be after escapism.

"I think they want to lighten up their life by watching comedy. Basically this is also what happens everywhere else in the world," he said.

"However, we should give other forms of theatre a chance. I think that theatre could be a more profound experience which has an impact on one's life."

Mr Cassar Darien pointed out that while La Bete, a play by David Hirson which was jointly put up by the Manoel Theatre Management Committee and Teatru Anon, did not fare so well with the public, it was still a huge credit to the team that staged it.

"La Bete was a difficult play to stage and the very fact that an attempt was made to do it means that we have upgraded our theatrical mentality," he said.

Another positive experience at the theatre was the introduction of Loggapalk, a series of monthly semi-staged play readings held in the courtyard every Monday. The readings were always followed by an animated discussion.

Loggapalk, the brainchild of Mr Cassar Darien himself, was held between January and June and was very well attended.

Mr Cassar Darien said he hoped to rope in local councils and tour the towns and villages with Loggapalk in the upcoming season.

This would encourage more people to attend and listen to different forms of theatrical dialogue that differed from that heard on local television.

Though drama performances did well this season, Mr Cassar Darien said he was worried about the emerging segregation between audiences who attended shows in Maltese and those who went to see shows in English.

Mr Cassar Darien is at present conducting a study, which he entitles The Purity of Theatre, on this phenomenon.

"What worries me is that, overall, only a handful of people attend productions in both languages," he said.

"I feel that the standard of drama on local television stations has become dreadful and people seem to be associating live theatre with all these soaps, veering away from the purity of theatre in the process."

"If given the chance to choose between a script in English or Maltese, good bilingual actors in Malta would opt for the one in English."

One Maltese play which was surprisingly not well attended was Hitan, a play written by one of Malta's finest playwrights, Francis Ebejer.

"In my opinion Hitan should have been a vehicle that explored the collective guilt of Israel, a topic which nowadays everyone is talking about.

"Now theatre companies in the US and Europe are trying to find plays like Hitan that explore this collective guilt factor, when, unfortunately, we had the real McCoy in our hands and let it slip through our fingers," Mr Cassar Darien said.