Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1439469
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 DECEMBER 2021 5 THEATRE worth living foley sounds are executed by Claire Tonna and Jamie Car- dona. Tonna's contralto is as irrepressible as it is sound, while Cardona's performance is nothing short of remarkable, transitioning from one modali- ty to the next, capturing an im- mersive and shared poetic en- ergy. The music composition and sound design by Chris Vel- la is a work of sleek self-posses- sion, packed with gleaming and peculiar electronic sounds. The creative collective bloc were tasked with the production de- sign. While the set design that aims to, in bloc's words, "em- ulat[e] the inspiring and hectic world of [Friggieri's] home of- fice" offers an interesting addi- tion to the production, bloc's most notable contribution is a mask, worn on stage by Cheryl Lofreda (also the dance chore- ographer for the production). As bloc explain, the mask, 3D printed in white pla, was con- ceived and constructed off of images of Friggieri in motion. Photographs and screens are thus condensed in one solid form: a visual cue that points to the idea of an archive that abstracts a cultural figure be- yond life and death. Taking centre stage in O., we witness dancers from THE MVMT, a hip-hop and urban dance academy also known as Concept of Movement, with choreography that aims to broaden the reach and breath of Friggieri's words. Here, I am slightly torn in my turn. At times, the choreographic effort feels a bit like a blind swing in the dark, especially at points when the reflective mode of certain aspects of Friggie- ri's work being referenced on stage call for a kind of intimate visual, as opposed to the stark- ness that THE MVMT's cross- over of genres—mostly urban and contemporary—offers. It is hard to tell if Lofreda, the dance company's director and chore- ographer, is being intentionally off-the-grid in her approach or if she is simply treading in the deep end throughout. Perhaps, the choreographic flourishes of THE MVMT that interrupt the performance's flow are too much like intrusive thoughts that disrupt poetic meditation. Perhaps, this intrusion is as pesky as it is necessary. After all, part of O.'s problem is the problem brought about by all men considered great— the problem of what to include, omit and add when telling their life story and, more complexly, to what extent we revere that story. Almost a year after Frig- gieri's passing, O. is utterly time-specific, but it aims to be much more than that. In O., we are thrust into the quasi-hallu- cinatory aftermath of Friggie- ri's legacy. Understand, O. tells us, you will never be able to di- vorce the art from the man; the literature from the eulogy. Notably, Fjuri Li Ma Jinx- fux, Friggieri's autobiography spanning the years 1955-1990, is referenced heavily in O.—it is the only work that finds it- self featured in every single sequence of the performance; wordy extracts from it re- cur and quiver throughout. Through such a choice, Teatru Malta point to, almost offhand- edly, the problem of literature. Literature, as we know it, is it- self a memento for a time past: we read it and contemplate the conditions of its making, look back at the act of writing that once came to be, at the words left on the page. Thus, we also acknowledge the end of things, take the flowers to the grave where they will inevitably wither away. Unless, that is, we look for, as the title of Friggieri's autobiog- raphy quips, "fjuri li ma jinxfux (flowers that do not wilt)". For Friggieri, the distinction between mortality and eternity was a rhetorical matter. Strip O. down to its bare bones and this remains: the event of death brushed off in the act of telling a story about a life worth living and art worth making, an un- fathomable possibility—fjuri li ma jinxfux. Taking centre stage in O., we witness dancers from THE MVMT, a hip-hop and urban dance academy also known as Concept of Movement, with choreography that aims to broaden the reach and breath of Friggieri's words.