Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496720
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 APRIL 2023 5 THEATRE experience that challenges the mind could possibly come together. The miracle is that they do, but it requires a leap in the dark and a lot of trust. To make things more compli- cated, this piece has some phys- icalised scenes, and working with the body, although of deep personal interest to me, was out of my comfort zone. But I like to challenge myself. It is the only way forward to grow artistical- ly. And of course I had the right team to support the process and to ensure that this was done successfully. I also think that another challenge was creating a piece that deals with the su- pernatural in an authentic man- ner. However, I knew that this challenged was surmountable when the cast was finalised. The five actors I worked with are so generous, raw and skilled that they ooze the required emotions in what seems to be an effortless manner. Do you have a favourite scene, or stand our performance? The play is composed of many short scenes, some of which without words. It is very diffi- cult to to identify a favourite scene But if I had to mention one, it would certainly be the final scene of the protagonist where her spiralling down into madness is conveyed powerfully with the minimal use of words. It always leaves me nailed, no matter how often I watch it. I also love the pre-set, the only moment where all the actors are on stage at the same time. It is a fluid 'scene' that will change from day to day. This is where you appreciate how flexible and resourceful this cast is! The project has been described as "being designed collective- ly" – can you expand on what that means and how it differs from other productions? The artistic process leading to this performance was a lengthy one. Although we had the text by Henry James, the work was devised. In the first phase, the actors improvised (without us- ing any words) on some of the themes that emerge from the story. Then they moved into the sec- ond phase, where they had a full week of training from Piper Theatre, an American theatre company that was flown to Mal- ta on purpose to offer further skills to our actors. This was an amazing and enriching expe- rience. In the third phase, we kept on improvising and struc- turing further our ideas and seeing how they can fit together (the crisis of the jigsaw puzzle). When we had a number of ideas together, I penned the first draft of the script (do not ask me how many mini-drafts followed. I have lost count). The scenes of the script were all based on the ideas that the actors came up with, and a mixture of spoken and some non-spoken scenes. We then worked on each scene separate- ly, bringing in also other peo- ple, such as movement coach Rochelle Gatt, to fine tune the work. By the end of March we had a final product, and we are now gearing up to share it with our audience.