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LAURA CALLEJA lcalleja@mediatoday.com.mt 3 THEATRE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 OCTOBER 2026 MaltaToday is supported by Arts Council Malta The cost of living between desire and expectations DIRECTOR Tyrone Grima brings Terence Rattigan's clas- sic drama to the Maltese stage, examining loneliness, love as well as the gap between legal progress and societal accept- ance. Speaking to MaltaToday, Gri- ma says the struggle between personal freedom and society's expectations remain far from resolved. His Maltese-language production of Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea (Il-Baħar Ikħal Skur) explores the emotional cost of living between the life one is expected to lead and the life that one desires. Performed in Maltese using the translation of Immanuel Mifsud, the production revisits Rattigan's 1952 play through the lens of late-1960s society, a peri- od marked by shifting attitudes towards women and minority groups. For Grima, the histori- cal setting offers more than just a glimpse into the past, it also exposes tensions that continue to shape contemporary Malta. "Although set in London, the dynamics in this production resonate so much to a contem- porary Maltese audience," he says. At the centre of the play is our protagonist Hester Collyer, a woman caught between the se- curity of an established life and her yearning for passion and purpose. She is caught between her husband, Judge Collyer who offers her a life of security but without passion, while Fred- die, a former RAF pilot, cannot commit to a relationship with her. Over the course of one day, an unexpected connection with Dr Miller, a disgraced former doctor, offers her a different perspective on life and suffer- ing. Grima stresses that her situa- tion is not an isolated one. He argues that the playwright's strength lies in his ability to por- tray characters whose circum- stances may differ but whose struggles with entrapment are universally recognisable. "Each character, even the ones that appear for a scene, are so well-written," he says. "At some point in life, we have been entrapped in a situation, not knowing which is the right choice, if there is a right choice at all." Instead of passing judgement on Hester or those around her, Rattigan presents a litany of competing needs, fears and expectations. Grima says this complexity is what makes the play compelling, allowing audi- ences to consider its dilemmas from multiple perspectives. The decision to stage the work in Maltese, using Mifsud's translation, is central to this ap- proach. Grima says that a translator must be someone who under- stands that translating thea- tre involves more than finding equivalent words—it requires placing a text within sociocul- tural context that preserves its original meaning while speaking to contemporary audiences. The late-1960s setting rein- forces that connection. It was a period when laws were be- ing introduced to improve the rights for women and LGBTIQ people, even as traditional atti- tudes continued to shape every- day life. For Grima the difference be- tween legal progress and social acceptance remains relevant. "The tension between de jure, what the law says, and de facto, what society perceives, is at the core of this particular produc- tion," he says. Grima says he sees similar tension in Malta today, warn- ing against the assumption that legislative advances necessarily mean that everyone is equally accepted or protected. "I think the play will make the Maltese audience reflect further on how sensitive we still need to be about minorities and people who suffer oppression and en- trapment," he says. "Sometimes we get a bit too comfortable, thinking that now everyone is catered for and OK. In reality, this is a far cry from the truth." Society's margins An important relationship in the play is between Hester and Dr Miller, two characters who find themselves on society's margins. Grima says despite changes in the law, queer peo- ple and women continued to face exclusion and prejudice. Their friendship offers a chance for both characters to lower their defences and con- front their vulnerabilities. Hav- ing both experienced loneliness and frustration in different ways, they understand what each other is feeling. "Their friendship allows them to pull down masks, be raw and touch the wounds that need to be touched in order for heal- ing to begin," Grima says. He describes their final scenes as among the most moving in the play. The production also handles other difficult subjects, includ- ing suicide, emotional depend- ence and the search for mean- ing. Grima says that handling these themes responsibility re- quired a particularly attention to the wellbeing of the actors, who spend weeks immersing themselves in emotional de- manding characters. He says expansive table work helped the cast understand "the motivations behind each char- acter's behaviour within the so- ciety they inhabit." Rehearsals were structured gradually, with opportunities for rest and de-rolling, allowing performers to step away from their characters. Grima's training as a drama therapist helped guide him. While specialists in psychology, gender studies and queer stud- ies were brought in to provide an additional perspective on the production's sensitive themes. There are no villains Grima says, the intention was never to encourage audiences to love or hate particular char- acters, but to understand them. "There are no villains in this play, but likewise perhaps there are no heroes." Despite the serious subject manner, there is also room for humour. This includes avoiding gratuitous depictions of distress in favour of a more nuanced ex- ploration of human experience. Grima says he sees The Deep Blue Sea as a reflection on the forces that continue to con- strain people, whether through social prejudice, destructive relationships or struggles with mental wellbeing. "The deep blue sea is still present whether we are talking about women, queer people, toxic relationships and mental well-being… And perhaps, up to a certain point, we are all still caught within the force of this deep blue sea." The Deep Blue Sea (Il-Baħar Ikħal Skur) will be on from 30, 31 October and 1,6,7,8 No- vember 2026 at Spazju Kreat- tiv, in Valletta. Director Tyrone Grima Photo: Justin Mamo