Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/281887
29 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 MARCH 2014 SUMPTUOUS SAVILLE PG 40 SURVIVOR SECRETS PG 34 SIZZLING STEAK PG 36, 37 TEODOR RELJIC speaks to director Chris Gatt and producer Adrian Buckle about Unifaun Theatre's upcoming production, Double Fo, a humorous double-bill of works by the famed Italian satirist Dario Fo – one of which will be presented in English for the very first time Would you say Double Fo fits into the Unifaun template of mixing drama with comedy? Adrian Buckle: Dario Fo writes brilliant theatre. Better still, Dario Fo writes brilliant Mediterranean theatre. And at Unifaun, we are in- terested in good theatre wherever it comes from. At Unifaun, we have built a reputation of producing brilliant drama, but that doesn't mean we have done so ex- cluding comedies. Over the years, we have put up such comic work as Two by Jim Cartwright, The Good Doctor by Neil Simon (after Anton Chekhov), and the Trevor Za- hra comedies in Maltese. What is dif- ferent with this pro- duction is that we are trying our hand at farce and clowning for the first time. Through his writing, Dario Fo reinvented C o m m e d i a dell'Arte. And his writing has a social soul to it. In our dou- ble bill, we are doing The Vir- tuous Burglar and Marcolfa. In The Virtu- ous Burglar, a burglar enters a high society flat with the in- tention to bur- gle it. But the owners start coming back home one by one and it is soon obvious that the only in- nocent person in the show is the burglar himself. In Marcolfa, an old and ugly lady servant wins the Vienna Lottery. Suddenly she be- comes the centre of attention of all the men around her and she dis- covers her reawakened femininity, to hilarious effect. A l - so, the staging of Mar- colfa was a unique opportunity, as this will be the first time it is being produced out of Italy and in English. Both plays are trans- lated by Joseph Farrell, who went through great pains to leave the Italian and Mediterranean rhythms of the plays intact. What led to the decision of presenting a double-bill of plays? What is it about the double- bill structure that interested you? AB: I was immediately taken in by the comical make-up of The Virtu- ous Burglar, and wanted to produce it. However, it is too short to be pro- duced alone so I needed another show to go with it. After some reading, I came across Marcolfa and the agents gra- ciously offered to have it translated into Eng- lish so that we could produce it. What I like about this double bill is that we are using the same director and the same set of actors to portray two different plays. The Virtuous Burglar is a farce, while Marcolfa is more on the lines of Commedia dell'Arte. It shows the versatility of the actors involved and the greatness of the author. Is there a particular brand of humour and satire that Dario Fo revels in? How would you say it differs from, say, the British tradition, which local theatre sometimes perhaps pays an inordinate amount of attention to? Chris Gatt: Dario Fo is Mediter- ranean. His humour is Mediter- ranean. He is also a master of im- provisation. He is known to have gone on stage with his actors to improvise a scene in front of an au- dience. His comedy is very physi- cal and includes a lot of clowning. Maybe Maltese audiences are more familiar with Paolo Villaggio's comedy but this is very similar. Many moments recall what pa- trons will call 'Fantozzate'. Later in his career, Fo's writing became very political, retaining that comic element in them. However, the plays we are presenting are less political and more comedy oriented. Comedy is notoriously a challenging genre to pull off effectively and effortlessly. How did you go about picking the right actors who could achieve this particular balance? AB: To tell you the truth, I am scared stiff of comedy. Comedy is a case where if the audience does not laugh, then you know that your production has been a failure there and then. For this production, we have chosen some of Malta's best comic actors in Alan Montanaro, Alan Paris, Philip Stilon, Renato Dimech, Mikhail Basmadjian, Co- ryse Borg, Charlotte Grech and Magda Van Kuilenburg. In Chris Gatt we have a director who is a master at interpreting comedy and creating even more comic mo- ments. Actos were chosen and cast according to their strengths. Comedy is often very closely wended to social phenomena. What kind of social milieu would you say the plays tap into, and would you say the Maltese public will be able to relate to them? AB: The Virtuous Burglar is about a burglar who goes to rob a wealthy man's flat only to be caught red-handed by the same man re- turning home with his mistress. However, before the man can act, his wife arrives home too – with her lover by her side. Now the couples have to use the burglar to mask their affairs to each other. By the end, the burglar finds out that he is the only one not having an affair. He is the only innocent man. In Marcolfa, an old female servant – the titular character – is an ugly, stupid and old woman (played by Alan Paris!), who wins the Vienna lottery. Suddenly, all the men around her want to marry her and she tries to play her cards right, enjoying these mo- ments of attention. It's a play that tells us that men will do anything to marry into money. Audiences will find it easy to re- late to these plays because of their effective use of comedy, which is laced with Mediterranean hu- mour. They are very accessible to us as the humour is very similar to ours. The themes, too, will be very accessible to a Maltese audi- ence. Double Fo will be staged at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta on March 29 and 30 and April 4-6 The art of Mediterranean mirth Alan Paris and Alan Montanaro (back) Alan Montanaro and Coryse Borg Charlotte Stafrace and Mikhail Basmadjan