Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1137604
CULTURE THEATRE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JUNE 2019 6 Who do you play in Pope Joan? CG: Let's just say I play the horrible villains who had been violent, abusive and anachronistically Machiavellian toward Joan. Having faced all those nasty characters, I can say that Joan, sure is a tough one! MM: I play the three "baddie" parts: Odo, Abbot Rabanus and Emperor Lothar Odo is the tyrannical school master who reluctantly accepts Joan (as a young girl) to his school for boys. Abbot Rabanus is the dictato- rial and fanatical head of the monas- tery where Joan (disguised as a man) is admitted as an apostate Emperor Lothar is at loggerheads with the Pope and schemes to replace Pope John (i.e. Joan) with his man. AW: I play Anastasius; the son of a rich Roman noble, who is brought up believing he is destined to become pope. He is spoilt, but charming; think Joffrey from Game of Thrones if he was actually intelligent and charismatic. AA: I play four different charac- ters, some of which are bigger than others: Gudrun, Joan's mother when Joan is a child, Theda, the Bishop's lover, Madalgis, a supposed leper and Ennodia, wife of the Pope Sergius' personal physician. They're all very different characters and during the rehearsal process I've been trying to find their specific physicality, walk, voice, accent and spirit. Experiment- ing physically and vocally to find the characters is my favourite part of the acting process and it's what pushes me to think hard about them and decide who they are, both physically and behaviourally. I start the play as Gudrun, a kind, proud and deter- mined mother who will do anything to keep her children safe from their dad's violence. Then I play a small character called Theda, a French lady who is not very interested in knowl- edge but rather in keeping jolly in good company and with good wine. Madalgis is a temperamental mother of six who has been condemned to isolation, including from her kids, because of the bulges on her skin which are thought to be leprosy. Fi- nally, Ennodia is the posh and pre- tentious wife of the Pope's personal physician who defends her husband's position against Joan, the foreigner, who is perceived to be attempting to take that job aw:ay from her husband. I love playing them all because as an actress transformation is what gives me most satisfaction. You open this Saturday 6th, describe your experience working on this production so far CG: I absolutely loved the journey - I think Irene has pulled off a won- drous task of not only being utterly precise in her direction and vision, but also in creating a 'great-family- spirit' running between us all. MM: As I'm working with who I consider to be some of the best ac- tors on the Island as well as a hugely experienced director, the process has been particularly stimulating to see how we have all approached our individual parts and how the direc- tor has brought us all together. It was particularly interesting to work within the historical and geographi- cal confines of the story and to learn so much of the political context relat- ing to women and the power strug- gles of the Church and State during the Middle Ages. AW: Working with the cast and team has been a blast. What's been most exciting has been discovering and playing with the show's super unique style, conceived by and won- derfully crafted by our director, Irene Christ, of course. AA: It has been a fantastic process from the start as we couldn't have asked for a better team of actors, di- rector, creatives and crew. It's also a great story about determination, strength, resilience and the power of knowledge. Our director Irene Christ had a very clear vision of what she wanted to achieve from the begin- ning and that helped us actors a lot in knowing how to build the char- acters. The whole cast is made up of incredible established actors and I've Two's a party… four is MaltaToday sat down with cast members Chris Galea, Michael Mangion, Alex Weenik and Antonella Axisa "It was particularly interesting to work within the historical and geographical confines of the story and to learn so much of the political context relating to women and the power struggles of the Church and State during the Middle Ages"