The short play Zoom: Hybrid Performance, staged at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa between September 17 and 19, was an exercise in melding the real and the virtual as a direct response to the COVID-19 upheaval of recent times.

Written and directed by Tyrone Grima and produced by Grima and Joseph Galea, Zoom presented audiences with the somewhat thwarted sense of reality brought about by the pandemic, forcing us into ‘hybrid’ forms of communication and connection, with our interactions mediated thought vessels making us further removed from one other.

Damian (Carlos Farrugia) and Samantha (Kristjana Casha).

Zoom shines as a comment on how the encroachment of virtuality is conditioning our present days, shown to audiences through a light-hearted story about an erratic group of players within the threatened arts sector.

Audiences are asked from the outset which version of the play they would like to see: the online version from the comfort of one’s home, the one as seen from the palace’s garden with the inclusion of complementary nibbles or the one experienced from the palace’s courtyard from a ‘backstage’ vantage point.

We are nonetheless assured that we would watch the same play no matter the selection, as is indeed the case. We are always privy to what is occurring in any of the three spaces within the play through screens set up for the purpose. Our choice only determines which parts of the play we would witness in person or virtually.

The play centres around Samantha (Kristjana Casha), a producer trying to get her career back on track following the ill effects of the pandemic on the arts sector. She organises a screening of a virtual show where audiences are treated to a performance by Guapa (Antonella Axisa) – an online cabaret artist of questionable ability.

Samantha’s friend Damien (Carlos Farrugia) is entrusted with catering for the event, aided by his (slightly vacant) sister Gertude (Kim Dalli). Several disasters ensue, mostly due to Guapa’s ineptitude and Damien’s lack of concern for boundaries. He interrupts Guapa’s online Zoom show to chat with one of the participants, Caroline (Angele Galea), whom he tries to seduce.

The virtual sphere has been given more magnitude than we may be comfortable with during these COVID-ridden times

The romantic comedy takes place with relative ease, testament to the actors’ seasoned approach and the producers’ attunement to the play’s simplicity, which makes it so effective. The only fracture I perceived was in the cacophonous nature of a great number of scenes.

Comedies are not always known for their subtlety, and it is not a requisite of comedies to present themselves as such. Indeed, it is sometimes a comedy’s excesses which make it appealing – I recall a fellow audience member laughing quite heartily at the characters’ loud interactions. Such comedies can be quite polarising, some finding them hilarious and others intolerable.

That being said, when the comedic element of a piece is transmitted largely through yelling, this can be somewhat tiresome. Damien’s bursts and Guapa’s shrieks are more than welcome in smaller quantities, but it was difficult to tolerate these for as prolonged a period as they were shown.

I felt that the actors’ prowess was most appealing and most visible during the play’s quieter moments which, despite this, were not devoid of comedic value (the conversation between Samantha and Gertrude comes to mind). The cacophony of other scenes sometimes gave the opposite impression.

Guapa (Antonella Axisa) while giving her online show.

The virtual sphere has been given more magnitude than we may be comfortable with during these COVID-ridden times. While we are nonetheless able to access every side of an event through online steaming, perhaps more than we would be able to otherwise, the screen still proves itself to be an impermeable barrier, the mitigation of which requires substantial, at times exhausting effort. Zoom was a playful and effective lens into the dynamics of COVID-induced communication, while also being a generally enjoyable play in its own right. It is well worth looking forward to whatever else Grima has in store.

Zoom: Hybrid Performance was supported by Arts Council Malta.