Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1234806
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 APRIL 2020 4 THIS WEEK CULTURE Adaptability is the watchword as we all struggle to both contain and live under the shadow of a global viral pandemic. Local theatre ensemble WhatsTheirNames Theatre is no different in this regard, as TEODOR RELJIC discovers during a chat with director Philip Leone-Ganado, as the group prepare for a live streamed re-take of their 2018 run of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, then staged at The Pub in Archbishop Street, Valletta Making do with much ado Theatre in quarantine and under the shadow of social distancing restrictions – what are your first impressions of how it's all going down, particularly within the Maltese scenario? I'd like to say that, on an industry level, the fact that so many producing compa- nies and artists are either state-funded or have alternative income will for the first time actually be a positive, and in- sulate us from the worst of it. But the reality obviously is that I really have no idea. Many people have lost work and will continue to do so the longer this goes on, so it's never going to be easy, and a very bleak long-term impact is very conceivable. On an artistic level though, it's heartening to see so many companies (in theatre and other per- forming arts spheres) taking to the chal- lenge with such energy and coming up with new ways of doing things. If noth- ing else, I think we'll remember how we responded to this. What led you to decide to re-stage your take on William Shakespere's Much Ado About Nothing, performed at The Pub two years ago, as a livestream on Zoom/Facebook? Who sparked off the idea among the WhatsTheirNames ranks, and were you more scared than excited about it? Nearly all of the original cast are cur- rently working or training full-time in theatre so, at the risk of putting too fine a point on it, we've got time on our hands. This seemed like a good way of stretching our theatre muscles dur- ing lockdown and putting something positive out into the world for people who've enjoyed our shows in the past. It feels like both for audiences and for ourselves as artists, if we can still create in some form, then we should try. And because this is such uncharted terrain, a reading of a play we'd worked on be- fore seemed like a good way of easing ourselves into a new format while re- visiting something with fond memories for us and our audience in a new and interesting way. The production is a particular one also because all of the actors will be in separate locations at all times – how much of a nightmare will this be to coordinate, and on the flip-side of that concern: do you also look forward to embracing the chaos that comes with such an idea and approach? The basic fact of having actors in dif- ferent locations hasn't been all that difficult to work with: the simple tech- nological shift isn't that different to moving a meeting on to Zoom. But ob- viously it's not the same experience as a traditional theatre performance (to the extent that our pub shows could be called traditional). We're having a lot of fun playing around with what it means to be 'live' together in this new virtual space, what the new dramatic possibil- ities are, how we translate some of the ideas we devised for the original stag- ing to the new form, how we create an experience that stands on its own feet, rather than being a poor imitation of something else. At the same time, this is a reading rather than a fully-realised performance, so we're very much going to be exploring all that on the fly, with our audience, which feels very much in line with how WhatsTheirNames has always worked. Much Ado About Covid - The so- cial-distanced gang get back togeth- er on Zoom. Clockwise from top: Jo- seph Zammit, Philip Leone-Ganado, Tina Rizzo, Gianni Selvaggi, Giulia Xuereb and Nathan Brimmer Promotional photo shoot for the original WhatsTheirNames Theatre Shakespeare in the Pub production of Much Ado About Nothing, staged at The Pub in Archbishop Street in April 2018. Photography by Jacob Sammut