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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2015 30 This Week 'What the hell just hit me?' Ahead of staging Martin Crimp's avant-garde classic Attempts on Her Life at St James Cavalier, Unifaun Theatre founder and the play's producer Adrian Buckle tells TEODOR RELJIC about how his team, headed by American director Dave Barton, is approaching this unique example of Physical Theatre, which Buckle dubs "a feminist play written by a man" Though it's something of a contemporary classic, Mar- tin Crimp's play is also quite formally daring. Why did you decide to adopt such a play as your next project, and what ideas did you have in mind when thinking up ways of mak- ing it palatable to a local au- dience? I have a special soft spot for Physical Theatre. In my opinion, movement and the mechanics of the human body are the greatest art form. I remember watching DV8's John and being enthralled by it. It was at that point that I decided I wanted to do some physical theatre in the near fu- ture. I had tried it in the past but each attempt ended up never materializing. I remember that when I started looking at scripts that might be interpreted physi- cally, a friend of mine suggested Attempts on Her Life. I have to admit that after first read, my reaction was "What the hell just hit me?" Then, when I read it over and over again, the themes started sinking in. First of all, this is a completely un- conventional play, and because of that it is a modern classic that has inspired dozens of other playwrights to attempt the same method of writing. In the play, there are no definite characters or storylines. Instead there are voices and scenarios; 17 different scenarios to be ex- act. In these scenarios we hear about a woman called Anne, or Anoushka, or Anya. We never meet her. We just hear news about her from the other actors, or the other voices. Sometimes they are her friends, sometimes her parents, sometimes they are her victims, sometimes her op- pressors. With each scenario, Anne changes. She is an inno- cent girl in one scenario and a prostitute in another. She is a victim of ethnic cleansing in one scenario and a terrorist in another. What Martin Crimp is doing here is that he is peeling off the skin of this mysterious Anne to discover what woman is made of. In a way, this is a feminist play written by a man. Attempts on Her Life is maybe the most avant-garde piece Unifaun has ever attempted. To work on this project we employed mav- erick Californian theatre direc- tor Dave Barton, who many will remember from our production of Sarah Kane's Blasted and MADC's Shakespeare produc- tion of Twelfth Night. Sandra Mifsud joined the group as choreographer. We were thrilled to have Sandra on board, especially following her sterling work on Tender Na- palm. Then we have an explo- sive and energetic young cast in Lizzie Eldridge, Bettina Paris, Larissa Bonaci, Mariele Zam- mit, Antonella Mifsoode, Marie Keiser-Nielsen, Ruth Borg, Philip Leone Ganado, Vladislav Ilich and debutant Timmy Paris. The play is very visual and en- ergetic. Stories are told through text and movement. Sometimes it is also told through projec- tion, as we intend to make this a multi-visual show. What are main challenges of a play that's structured in this way, and how do you hope the actors in particular will meet this challenge? It is a challenge because instead of characters and a story line we have 17 different scenarios about one woman. The actors have to be careful because they cannot rely on their Stanislavski tricks to create a character. They have to enact a moment. With most of our acting in Malta based on Stanislavski methods, this is not easy. But it also makes for more engaging and exciting theatre because the acting is more hon- est. Do you think the play's multi- media focus makes it more ap- pealing to a general audience, or is the essentially fragment- ed nature of it even more of a challenge? Anthony Neislon, author of Stitching, once told me that the most important thing in theatre is that the audience has fun. By having fun we don't mean that they have to see a comedy or a farce but that they are engaged. I agree with him wholeheart- edly. How many times do we hear, "I don't go to the theatre, but I should!"... Excuse me? Why should you? You don't go to the theatre to learn; you go to the theatre to be engaged and to have fun. This is what we are try- ing to do with Attempts on Her Life. We are trying to engage the audience and we are willing to do this through the staging and the multi-media. We want this to be an experience the audience readily forget. The challenge is to make it engaging and not di- dactic. This is not a lesson. This is a show. What do you make of the local theatre scene? What would you change about it? I think the local theatre scene is developing quite nicely. Gone are the days when we had to go through the censors to put on a play. Soon, we won't be threat- ened by obscenity and blasphe- my laws either. I think the scene is becoming more professional. I would be happier if more companies took risks with their work but I guess everyone has his niche and as long as the quality is good, all theatre is welcome. What's next for you? In February we are presenting Anders Lustgarten's Lampedu- sa, a play about the sea-crossing over the Mediterranean. It is a very topical play and we will put on some performances in Eng- lish and others in Maltese. Then in April we are holding the world premiere of Edward Bond's new play The Price of One. This is the first time that a Maltese company has commis- sioned such a great and impor- tant playwright and it will be a co-production between the Ma- noel Theatre and Unifaun with the support of the Malta Arts Fund. The show will then travel to Edinburgh for the Fringe Fes- tival in August. Then, later in 2016 we will be staging Shakespeare's Macbeth at the Manoel Theatre, directed by Chris Cooper with Mikhail Basmadjian and Marcelle Teu- ma in the leading parts. Attempts on Her Life will be staged at St James Cavalier, Val- letta on October 30 and 31; No- vember 1, 5-8, 12-14. Bookings and more information: http:// www.kreattivita.org/ American director Dave Barton marshals an ensemble cast in Unifaun Theatre's production of Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARRIN ZAMMIT LUPI "Gone are the days when we had to go through censors to put on a play. Soon, we won't be threatened by obscenity and blasphemy laws either"