Finding and celebrating your true self seems to have been a popular theme for this year’s edition of the ever-popular ŻiguŻajg, the international children’s arts festival that has firmly cemented its position in the local arts and culture calendar.

The theatrical production Mitluf/Misjub, staged at San Ġorġ Preca College Primary School, Valletta, between November 25-27, was one of the productions showcased at the festival.

I watched Moveo’s touching Uncover/Discover dance performance the night before and I was struck by the similarity of the themes covered by both performances.

Another scene from the production.

In Mitluf/Misjub, the central character is Flo, a budding bedroom musician with a penchant for Joon (aka Yasmin Kuymizakis – the local electronic songwriter who is also credited with the sound design of the piece).

Flo, however, is struggling with fitting in with the in-crowd at her new school and blames it all on her idiosyncratic tastes, so she decides to go with the flow (pun intended) and become someone she’s not but whom she thinks will be more readily accepted by her new friends.

In the opening stages of the play, we see Flo going through the angst and self-doubt most of us experienced in our tweens and teens and writer Cassi Camilleri captures it wonderfully in the moments when Flo is expressing her thoughts and feelings to the audience and her interaction with her past and present classmates.

The part of Flo is very ably played by Paula Zammit Mintoff who endows the character with a lovable sense of playfulness and oodles of energy. She is supported by a trio of confident actors (James Azzopardi Meli, Rochelle Gatt and Christine Francalanza) who juggle the various characters in Flo’s life and subconscious with great ease.

'Mitluf/Misjub' was one of the productions staged during the 'ŻiguŻajg' festival.

Midway through the piece, Flo is caught in a moment of panic as she realises that her new friends have called her bluff and she must come up with a script for a talent show play to perform with them the following day.

This forces her to literally get inside her head and meet three characters (Del, Rent and Percy) that eventually help her to discover the simple truth that she can only thrive by being herself.

Flo goes through the angst and self-doubt most of us experienced in our tweens and teens

It was at this point that I felt that the writing lost the cla­rity of thought and incisiveness that had been so central to the opening part.

I failed to see any connection between these three characters and that of Flo that I could relate to, as opposed to the wonderful relationship previously established between Flo and her school friends.

Director Vikesh Godhwani makes excellent use of the very limited (and limiting) space available, particularly in the central section inside Flo’s head.

The production was more suitable to tweens, rather than 8-year-olds.

There were some clever visual gags, and I particularly found the soundscape Kuymizakis prepared to be very effective. A number of scenes lent themselves for more audience interaction that could have made the audience feel closer to the action onstage.

Despite the dip in clarity in the central section, the piece ends on a strong note as Flo rediscovers her true self and her friends join her in an entertaining final dance number.

The piece was billed as being suitable for eight-year-olds and over, yet I felt that the subject matter could resonate better with tweens in mind, and while my eight-year-old was suitably entertained, it was my 12-year-old daughter who appreciated the underlying theme.