Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/286290
31 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 30 MARCH 2014 SUMPTIOUS SRI LANKA PG 44 ART ATTACK PG 36 LUCIOUS LEEKS PG 40, 41 The heretic we didn't deserve Following the success of Jiena Nhobb, Inti Thobb, theatre director Mario Philip Azzopardi speaks – and speaks, and speaks – to TEODOR RELJIC about Stagun Teatru Malti's upcoming production, Cittadin Vassalli, which will dramatise the contentious historical figure of Mikiel Anton Vassalli ASK theatre director Mario Philip Azzopardi about Mikiel Anton Vassalli, and watch him go. In a behavioural transformation that I would hazard to call 'gro- tesque' for fear of insulting the guy – though I maintain that the describes the passionate vitriol he exhibits during our conversation with some accuracy – it's clear that the chosen subject of his next play is rich pickings for topics close to his – and, he argues with steady conviction – Malta's heart. "I am Mikiel Anton Vassalli's right descendant," he says when I ask about what attracted him to the contentious historical figure in the first place, as he prepares to direct and stage Cittadin Vas- salli – a theatrical reimagining of the ill-treated Maltese-language paladin – at the Manoel Theatre next month. "I have his ring back home… and more importantly, my family has an original copy of his Lexicon…" This, I soon discover, is about the only bit of factual informa- tion Azzopardi will proffer during our conversation. As soon as he lets out that "Vassalli was always an interesting character…" he de- scends into an often-angry mono- logue about the implications of his subject's biography – perhaps confirming that Vassalli's story remains relevant to this day. I don't want to turn this arti- cle into a history lesson – a pot- ted round-up of who Vassalli was runs the risk of not really doing him justice – so I'll just reproduce how Stagun Teatru Malti, the theatre company "that brought you Jiena Nhobb, Inti Thobb", are approaching the (contentious) subject. 'This year marks the 250th an- niversary of the birth of Mikiel Anton Vassalli, who fought for Malta to gain independence from the Knights, and is considered to be the father of the Maltese lan- guage. 'A controversial figure in his day, he was imprisoned both by the Knights and the English due to his radical intellectual position. His vision of a liberated Malta was not appreciated by his contemporar- ies, who didn't believe that Malta could survive independently and who preferred to let foreigners rule the island. 'Cittadin Malti takes on this tale of revolution and betrayal, trans- forming it into a spectacle that attempts to portray the figure of Vassalli through a contemporary lens.' In a year when Malta's national identity is a recurring topic among both cultural and political circles, one can perhaps hardly blame Az- zopardi for opting to delve into the socio-political, thematic as- pects that emanate from the play – penned by Tyrone Grima – rath- er than its narrative mechanics. One thing he picks up early on during our chat is the disappoint- ing – and in his view, still endur- ing – tendency to glorify Malta's hakkiema (foreign rulers). "This will probably get me lynched" – he constantly chal- lenges me to "quote [him] on this" – "but I think we should change the Maltese national anthem – it also glorifies the 'hakkiem', and I don't think we need to feed that anymore," he says, swiveling back into how Vassalli fits into all this. "We find him at a time when the Knights – like the French aris- tocracy – are at their most deca- dent, when the Maltese peasant is downtrodden… here's a man who decides to become a priest, takes his vows, and then doesn't go through with it… so there's al- ready some stigma there. But then he commits what is perceived by many to be the biggest sin of all: he dares to call Malta 'a Nation'…" This appears to be the central root of the drama that powers Cittadin Vassalli as a production. Azzopardi firmly believes that the Maltese lost out an opportunity for genuine emancipation when they spurned Napoleon in favour of the Knights. "Everyone makes a big thing about how they would loot church- es and so on… but if you look closely, Maltese churches were even holding auctions for some of these artifacts," Azzopardi says, insisting that history remains skewed towards the Knights be- cause of what he perceives to be an unfortunately hardwired Mal- tese trait, that of "always looking for someone to be ruled under". So Vassalli is positioned as the 'perfect heretic' in this context – a seeker of unfettered national freedom whose efforts were tragi- cally underappreciated. Azzop- ardi twists the knife further by suggesting that, even though we might technically be an independ- ent nation, the two-party system ensures that our intellectual space is always cluttered with petty po- litical conf lict. "In a sense, the political parties are our 'hakkiema' because all they do is foment conf lict. They don't free us – they lock us in con- stant conf lict." Picking up on the key strand of Vassalli's reputation, Azzopardi claims that "it's ultimately our language which truly unites us". "And just like we filled full hous- es for Jiena Nhobb, Inti Thobb… and just as Gensna managed to do the same, since it's a Maltese- language music festival – I'm con- fident that this production will once again prove that the Maltese have a hunger for stories which are truly Maltese…" Cittadin Vassalli will be staged at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta between April 11 and 13 Mario Philip Azzopardi PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD