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xxx xxxx maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 FEBRUARY 2019 5 THIS WEEK THEATRE matically in the last 10 years as more and more youngsters are seeking to be- come professional artists. There are still lacunas to be addressed, especially on the educational level, as we still do not have proper full time academic courses for painting, sculpture and photography at university level. Even at primary and secondary levels, our educational sys- tems seems to ignore the importance of the knowledge of art. Another area which needs to be improved is the par- ticipation of corporate companies in the promotion and acquisition of contem- porary art. And, last but not least, the introduction of artists' retirement pen- sion schemes. What's next for you? At the moment I'm going full circle, editing some black and white photo- graphs of Maltese lifestyles from the 70s and 80s which I've been planning to put into a book. There are some unique and nostalgic images in this archive, espe- cially photographs taken in Gozo, and the idea is to present them in a non-line- ar, non-narrative way, showing how the Maltese lived at the onset of the Repub- lic. Meanwhile, my commitment with photography at university goes on, and I am pleased to inform you that we have now introduced three new study-units on photography in the Digital Arts De- partment - Faculty of Media and Knowl- edge Science. A bloody valentine from Unifaun UNIFAUN Theatre burst out of their (dis)comfort zone with a bloody and sexy vampire drama that is, however, closer to the likes of 'Twilight' than it may like to ad- mit. Adapted from the novel of the same title – by Italian author Ag- nes Moon – by Unifaun founder and head producer Adrian Buckle and directed by Stephen Oliver, The Acrobat (Blood Ties) does poke explicit fun at the sparkly- vampire franchise at a certain point in its script, but its appeals to the young adult crowd can't be overlooked, no matter how much blood and sex one throws into the mix. Currently being staged at Spazju Kreattiv at St James Cavalier, the play's cast is largely rounded off by international talent, with a small Maltese contingent of large- ly young actors very much proving their mettle in supporting roles. The Dickens-meets-Anne Rice story zooms in on the young thief Liam (Cody Hively), an orphaned thief in the employ of Curt (Mark Windsor, in one of his four roles) - a pederastic Fagin-like charac- ter who sports a MAGA hat and goes around in an unsightly pair of underwear, and whose latest as- signment for Liam - or 'acrobat', as he's known in the trade - is the theft of a precious dagger from a stately home. But the job ends up being far more than what the righteously arrogant Liam had bargained for, as breaking into the dilapidated home of the aristocratic Vincent (Marco Michel) sets off a chain of events involving vampirism, sado- masochism… and ultimately, an unraveling of both of their inner demons. On opening night on February 9, The Acrobat got off to some- thing of a rocky start, with actors all-too-frequently fudging their lines and a creaky scene-to-scene tempo that undercut somewhat the suspenseful build-up that the narrative requires. But there was still plenty to en- joy here, if only because it show- cased a fresh side to the Unifaun repertoire - one that's less bur- dened with jolting the audience out of true and that embraces the trappings of a popular genre for their own sake. Though perhaps somewhat over- used by the end, the three over- hanging monitors on stage - an otherwise impeccable set designed by Unifaun regular Romualdo Moretti - that blared out music videos by Depeche Mode certain- ly set an apposite New Romantic tone, not least when you're re- minded of just how heavily laced with BDSM the songs' subtext can be. The look and feel of the piece was also complemented by Nicole Cuschieri's costume de- sign, which betrays an intimate understanding of the material and plays up its flamboyance for all it's worth. One minor quibble on this front, however: though the play is clearly set in present day (charac- ters speak in modern slang, some- times over mobile phones) the 'Occult Hunters' who show up in the final act do so in full Victorian period costume - a misjudged, jar- ring move for a play that demands careful worldbuilding. Moon's story adds nothing new to the vampire romance canon, but the 'will-they, won't-they' dynamic that's established between Liam and Vincent plays out convinc- ingly enough on stage, with both actors taking to their roles with relish. Cut from the same cloth that gave us the Vampire Lestat and his countless imitators, Vin- cent is arch, abusive and ultimately charming, revealing a vulnerability at his core that he allows 'the ac- robat' to sneak into, with Hively thankfully dropping his perma- sneering streetwise brat schtick to soften into something a bit more complex towards the end. The Acrobat continues its run at Spazju Kreattiv at St James Cavalier, Valletta tonight and on February 22, 23 and 24. The play is partially fund- ed by the MAF Project Fund, Arts Council Malta. Unifaun Theatre side-steps transgressive sex and gore for its young adult variant with The Acrobat (Blood Ties), an LGBTIQ-friendly vampire romance with its heart in the right place, but somewhat lacking in bite Hurts so good: Liam (Cody Hively) falls into the clutches of the brutal but wistful vampire Vincent (Marco Michel) in The Acrobat PHOTO BY CHRISTINE MUSCAT AZZOPARDI "The artist, like the scientist, has a crucial role to perform in our society"