Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1107757
THIS WEEK THEATRE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 APRIL 2019 4 Now gearing up for a venue change after an unexpectedly successful three-play run of the Bard's comedies at The Pub, theatre director Philip Leone-Ganado speaks to TEODOR RELJIC ahead of WhatsTheirNames Theatre's staging of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure at the Splendid in Strait Street First of all, could you talk a little bit about the history of WhatsTheirNames' Shakespeare productions so far? What was the animating force behind them, and are you looking forward to the slight formula shake-up that appears to be in the offing with your upcoming production of Measure for Measure? I'd like to pretend there was some over- arching goal behind everything, but the truth is we first decided to put a Shake- speare on at The Pub [in Archbishop Street, Valletta] because we had the venue and it sounded like fun. We hon- estly didn't think anybody would actually show up. Evidently it was fun not just for us but for our audience, and it all built on itself from there. What we discovered along the way was that there was an appetite for unpreten- tious, stripped-down Shakespeare that focuses above all on engaging the audi- ence and having fun together. It's always been so important to me to break down the fear that tends to surround Shake- speare, so the number of people who said it was their first time watching one of his plays, or the first time they really understood it, has been the most gratify- ing part. With Measure for Measure we have this really exciting chance to play with a bunch of new ideas and see how they work with what we've already discov- ered, but the core of what we're doing remains the same. The production also marks your first departure away from Shakespeare's comedies, as well as heralding a venue change – away from The Pub in Archbishop Street and to the Splendid in Strait Street. What prompted these shifts, and how do you hope to make the best of them? The Pub was an incredible venue, but after three shows that followed a broadly similar formula, it felt like we were ex- hausting its possibilities. I think our au- dience would have happily come back for more, but we've never wanted to stick to what works just because it works. There was also a practical aspect: we've sold out and had long waiting lists every year, so the slightly larger space at The Splendid hopefully means more people can get tickets. The Splendid has the same intimacy Teodor Reljic 'We honestly didn't think anybody would actually show up' Photography by Jacob Sammut Joe Azzopardi Joseph Zammit, Jonathan Dunn (top) and Sandie von Brockdorff