Theatre
Kjaroskur
St James Cavalier
Nothing quite fits our idea of the way things should be than the preconditioned image we have in our minds as to what they ought to be based on assumption.
...an excellent piece of theatre... definitely worth watching for the insights it gives us into human frailty- André Delicata
Nobody ever looks at the evidence beyond at face value ortries to think differently and this is what writer Simone Spiteri set out to do with her award-winning play, Kjaroskur last weekend.
Ms Spiteri’s script won first prize in the Premju Francis Ebejer for Maltese Drama.
And the production, a collaboration between Ms Spiteri’s theatre company Dù and the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, set out to explore a story from every facet of the plot.
It was very much a play about frame of mind and point of view, where the four characters were thrown into each other’s view of the world and had to grapple with different desires and expectations as well as deal with supposed accusations on the part of the other characters.
In a post-modern jigsaw of flashbacks which latched onto each other, linking one character’s perspective to another in a collage of veiled hints and partial implications, the plot exposed the missed opportunities for clarity of vision due to each character allowing previous experience to cloud their judgement. Developing over the course of one day in a farmhouse in Gozo, with an excellent set designed by Pierre Portelli, Kjaroskur played on the idea of occluded information and gaps in our knowledge which lead us to reach the wrong conclusions.
The well-written script is the brainchild of a young woman who has already got a mature take on what relationships can be about – Ms Spiteri, who also plays Helen perfectly as a young 25-year-old who marries a man 15 years her senior for love.
She naively thinks that an honest relationship based on trust can exist in a bubble without baggage – the kind of baggage and sibling rivalry that her husband Greg has with his brother Alex.
As Greg, Peter Galea managed to make a resentful older brother more human because of his insecurities and trust issues.
This he does, rather than simply argumentative and petty, especially when he puts himself in righteous competition with his younger brother Alex, played by Stefan Farrugia who has great characterisation, but needs to focus more on his diction. It was hard to understand him clearly at times.
Alex is trapped in an unhappy marriage with Shirley and is trying to make amends with Greg but both are too proud to strip off their protective shells and be honest with each other.
Coryse Borg’s slightly faltering Maltese as Shirley was perfect for the part – I really enjoyed her performance because she played a woman who at first comes across as bitchy but who in reality is a product of her situation and is just as hurt as the people she tries to hurt with her insinuations.
A strong dynamic between the cast members was evident; their effortless acting gave a very natural vibe as the flashes of the past and present from the perspectives of different characters merged together to create a clear picture laden with dramatic irony for the audience.
While produced to a very high technical standard, the piece did occasionally lose pace and I felt it needed just a touch more drive – director Chris Gatt could have done with pushing the cast a little more.
However, it was undoubt-edly an excellent piece of theatre and despite its length for a piece sans interval, is definitely worth watching for the insights it gives us into human frailty.