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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2015 30 This Week Mischievous trickster with TEODOR RELJIC speaks to director Michael Fenech about Nanzi – a puppetry show culled from African folktales and dealing with the topic of migration, commissioned by Ideas Alive for this year's edition of the Ziguzajg Festival ACCESS TO EMPLOYMENT – REMOVING BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT – You open your doors to those who are more challenged and we will pay you a subsidy of €85 per week per new recruit for 24 weeks or for 52 weeks or for 104 weeks, or a subsidy of €125 per week for as many as 156 weeks in the case of registered disabled person! For more information contact ETC on 2220 1399 or a2e.etc@gov.mt or visit our website www.etc.gov.mt. EMPLOYMENT AID FOR 2014-2020 €2.4 MILLION FOR SALARY SUBSIDIES EACH YEAR It pays to employ! GRANTS TO PROMOTE EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL TARGET GROUPS: NOW OPEN FROM 2 ND NOVEMBER 2015 What were the initial ideas be- hind the project, and how did you set about developing them? Nanzi was originally written in 2007 for Kneeplays Youth Thea- tre, a youth theatre project that culminated in a Youth Theatre Festival in December 2008. The version we are presenting for Ziguzajg 2015 is a re-working of the initial concept, where the acting parts have been tran- scribed for puppets and most minor characters have been cleaned up. Was the migration element al- ways a part of the project? How do you aim to express this par- ticular aspect of it? Yes, the context of migration serves as a backdrop to a play that is all about personal courage and dignity in the face of adver- sity. The text spoken by Salima, the little lonely girl on a ram- shackle dinghy, are actual quotes from interviews of survivors of the perilous journeys undertak- en by people desperate to escape from terrible situations. Salima, (played by Naomi Said) is lonely, scared, lost and without any hope, but the same actor also plays Nanzi, a lively spider whose wit and humour are more potent weapons than the strength and reputation of the kings of the jungle. Theatre is an excellent place to practice empathy, and that is why Salima/Nanzi project complex characters. What kind of structure does the story take? Was it inspired by particular folk tales? And what was the process of adapting them for the stage like? Nanzi is based on Ashanti folk tales from what would be the equivalent of modern day Ghana. These ancient tales mi- grated, through slavery, to the Caribbean region where they are also important aspects of local folklore. The structure is two-fold: Sali- ma is on a boat in the middle of a dark sea, and remembers the folk tales her mother used to tell her to escape from her brutal reality to go to a happy place where she (as the spider Nanzi) is in con- trol of her life. The scenes on the boat are played realistically, while the tales are played for the fantasy element. Why did you opt for puppetry as your format of choice? Puppetry is an eminently suit- able medium to deal with the hu- manoid characters in these folk tales. The animals of the jungle clearly reflect human foibles, just as in Aesop's fables. Tiger is vain; Snake is self-important; Lion is not very intelligent and Mouse is anxious and cowardly. Naomi Said takes on the double role of Nanzi and Salima PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELISA VON BROCKDORFF