Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503368
that has been upheld at San Anton, on-and-off, ever since the mid-1930s). That was something I used to do once a year, (almost) every year, for nearly as long as I can remember... and there were several instances, that I myself witnessed, where San Anton's resident rodent population de- cided to 'get in on some of the Shakespearian action', them- selves. Two of them, in particular, stand out in my memory. The first concerns a production of 'Romeo and Juliet', in which the titular hero began his as- cent of the makeshift vine-trel- lis, in the hope of reaching Juli- et's balcony... only to disturb a rat that had taken up residence among the vine-leaves; and which suddenly leapt out onto the stage, causing an uninten- tional (but rather hilarious) 'jump-scare' among the audi- ence. The second was half-way through a scene from 'Othello', and... well, you have to have seen it with your own eyes, to appreciate the true splendour of it all. So there, on one side of the stage, lay the 'corpse' of Desde- mona, upon the bed where her husband had only just throt- tled her to death... and on the other, Othello himself, reeling in the throes of guilt, regret, and belated realisation... ... but most of what was hap- pening on stage was lost on the audience: because at that precise moment, a rather large (and seemingly well-fed) spec- imen of 'Rattus rattus' decid- ed to regale us with a little performance of its own... by 'tight-rope walking' across the breadth of the stage, on one of the many overhead tele- phone-wires. At one point, the audience's 'murmurs' and 'titters' turned to 'gasps of consternation': as the rat in question seemed to momentarily lose its balance, and came this close to actually falling off that wire (in which case, it would have landed di- rectly on Desdemona's face, as she lay in feigned death be- low.) What can I say? In true Shakespearian fashion, that rat 'stole the show' (unwittingly rescuing what was otherwise – no offence, or anything – a rather drab, non-descript the- atrical performance, until that point). In any case, I could go on... but the point here is that these memories of mine go back to the late 1980s/early 1990s: a time when San Anton Palace was already the President's of- ficial residence; it was already evidently crawling with rats, mice, cockroaches, and all sorts of other 'vermin'... ... and yet, strangely, nobody – not even Arnold Cassola, that I remember – ever held up this unremarkable fact, as if it were the final confirmation of the total 'disaster' that the Re- public of Malta had somehow 'degenerated into'. This is something that is only happening today: and not just with regard to 'rats in San An- ton', either. In fact, there was another (unrelated) Facebook post last week, which at a glance seems to home in on the crux of the entire matter. It was about Austin Camill- eri's 'Headless Horse' stat- ue, recently approved by the Planning Authority; and Phil- ip Leone Ganado – by an in- teresting coincidence, also a Shakespearean theatre direc- tor – had this to say on the subject: "For the first time in God knows how long, a public art- work with the potential to become iconic, something bold, interesting and in dia- logue with its space. And it's described as a 'headless horse statue', reported on as if it were an apartment block, and pilloried in the comments. Is this an issue of arts apprecia- tion, or are we so beaten down by the construction onslaught that we see absolutely anything manmade as a threat?" To which someone prompt- ly responded: "If this govern- ment is paying for it, it can't be right.' That's basically the only thought running through most 'educated' people's head on the island. And if not, you're a La- burist!" They're perfectly right, you know. What both these inci- dents reveal, is that the real 'disaster' facing this country has nothing whatsoever to do with 'rats in San Anton', or 'Headless Horses on the Qbajjar coast'... No: it's the fact that we all have seemed to have collec- tively lost all sense of propor- tion, in our tireless efforts to continually depict Malta as be- ing far more 'disastrous', than it really is.... ... and, well, it's all starting to get a little 'silly', now. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 JULY 2023 OPINION 11 I've been visiting that place, every once in a while, for the better part of over 40 years now: and looking back, I don't think there's ever been even a single occasion, where I didn't at spot at least one (usually, several) member of the 'Rattus' genus, scurrying around the undergrowth somewhere