Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/788859
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 31 This Week rience – the stuff of gossip and indeed hate blogs, as blogger Glenn Beddingfield used the mini-scandal to undermine Vella's otherwise legitimate and oft-expressed critique of the current Labour administration. Indeed, there are far more interesting strands to discuss now that we're here to talk about Rub Al Khali, Brikkuni's third album and a seemingly definite departure from the band's more raucous earlier sound, as well as Vella's boisterous public persona. But there's something to the emotionally wrenching Rub Al Khali that isn't entirely at odds with what we've come to expect from both Brikkuni, and Vella himself. Because Vella's expressions of anger and disillusionment, harsh and inflected with dark humour as they sometimes are, always come from a place of earnest emotion. Vella's not one for protective irony or tongue-in- cheek games: his political, social and critical observations are always made plain for all to see – something that holds true for both his oft-legendary Facebook posts and the con- tent of Brikkuni's songs in and of themselves. And with Rub Al Khali he has taken his ear- nest approach into what is arguably the most vulnerable place imaginable. Brikkuni's third album is a concept album, of sorts. A concept album about the dissolution of a ten-year re- lationship. Yeah. Teased at over the past couple of months with a few choice tracks ahead of a full release on Bandcamp for free on Valentine's Day, Rub Al Khali also proves that while the band will not likely recall any of their punkier ele- ments in their new sound, they certainly ap- pear to have retained a punk rock ethos when it comes to their DIY approach towards the dissemination of their material. Which means that the album is already snowballing its way into public appreciation, with old fans finding themselves galvanized and intrigued by this new direction, while Rub Al Khali is likely to create new converts as well – though certainly not among the hate blogger crowd – thanks to its atmospheric and heartfelt sweep. The title track that opens the album im- mediately marks out the work as something both new for Brikkuni, and also ambitious in its scope. The title evokes the largest de- sert in the world, and the violin-rich swell of the track's first half soon disintegrates into a prog-rock outro that establishes discomfort and uncertainty as a running theme for the album as a whole. There are more such unset- tling tracks, whose tempo doesn't allow the listener to simply be swept away: I would put the likes of 'Aguirre' and 'Stella' in this cat- egory. 'Ċpar' has Vella's vocals placed at their most raw, as his lyrics paint an evocative and tragic picture of birds trying to take shelter – in vain – from the hunters of the Mġarr coun- tryside… with the narrative framed, as ever, by the motif of the fading lovers that strings the album together. When it comes to songs that address this theme head on, many have praised 'Għadna', in which Vella is accompa- nied by YEWS (aka Yasmin Kuymizakis) for a duet that expresses some kind of domestic bliss that's just about to fracture. But more ef- fective still is 'Għaxar Snin', with a creepy cin- ematic overlay of sound that ties in perfectly with its central image: lovers embracing for the last time in a deserted city square. Perhaps the 'secret' to why Rub Al Khali works – why it feels so cohesive and powerful – is that it has something to say, but that for once this something is not a set of sharp and snarky observations about the outside world. Let's compare and contrast. One of the most amusing lines from Kuntrabanda's fan- favourite 'Gadazz Ġiljan' is: 'Jekk inti għandek opinjoni, kun af li jien għandi tnejn' ('If you've got an opinion, know that I've got two'). But Rub Al Khali is an album free of opinions. It's an album where the yappy, perennial online pain in the ass Mario Vella digs deep to re- lease an internal torrent. Rub Al Khali can be streamed for free on Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2kJqDbR. The album will be commemorated with a launch concert at the MCH Community Theatre, Attard on May 5 There's a lot of potential in Unintended – the debut script by Unifaun Theatre founder and producer Adrian Buckle – but it's buried in a sea of 'in-yer-face' theatre clichés, TEODOR RELJIC finds Playing happy families DIRECTED by Stephen Oliver for Uni- faun Theatre Productions, the pre-prom romance gone wrong play Unintended is penned by Adrian Buckle – the founder of Unifaun and producer of all of its plays. Unifaun have staked a claim on the local theatrical scene for offering up 'in-yer- face' theatre at a regular basis, and some- times caught serious flack for it (vide the Stitching saga) so this move feels like an organic one: their producer coming out of his shell to finally take his own stab – pun not intended – at the kind of theatre he has helped to import into the island. Inflected with a soundtrack from Muse – whose songs the cast alternatively take to lip-synching to during key moments – Unintended sees the jittery young his- tory student Jamie (Stephen Mintoff) bit- ing his nails at the prospect of meeting the parents: specifically, the parents of Lily Anne (Mariele Zammit) – one of the most popular girls in school who he is to- tally smitten with and whom he is about to take to 'Silver Moon Ball'. Bringing them an actual live cat as a gift – good- natured and conscientious Jamie volun- teers at an animal sanctuary – he soon discovers that his fears are justified. And then some. Martin (Mikhail Basmadjan) and Diana (Joyia Fitch) turn out to be sadistic perverts who, under the guise of sexually empowering Jamie toward a suc- cessful date with their daughter, quickly begin to mete out humiliation and tor- ture on the reserved young man. There's promise in the play's opening minutes, which leads to more promise as the awkward introductions between the parties are made and Jamie's stress levels hike up. Helped along with a more than capable cast – Mintoff and Fitch in particular stand out – Unintended is at its best before the grotesque action re- ally kicks into gear. Basmadjan is clearly having a blast with Martin, who goads teetotaler Jamie into taking drugs (while spiking his Coke all the way through their conversation) and leads him to con- versational blind alleys to get a rise out of him (a debate on who makes for the best football player in history is a particu- larly inspired take on stereotypical male bonding). On the other hand, Fitch makes for a powerful presence with Diana: a toxic mixture of mothering and perverse, and between the two parents Jamie is given ample room for psychological discom- fort. But ironically, for all the hard-ons it seeks to inspire in our beleaguered pro- tagonist, the second half of the play is re- markably limp as far as narrative drive is concerned. After poor Jamie is drugged and drugged over and over again and se- duced into having aggressive – though it must be said, not entirely unsatisfy- ing – sex with Diana, the play abandons its previously established vein of cheeky black humour and simmering tension in favour of a terminal descent into tired 'torture porn' territory. That Buckle is a fan of the in-yer-face theatre genre will surprise absolutely no- body – at least, not those who have fol- lowed the trajectory of Unifaun Theatre with even a fleeting sideways glance over its admirable run – and let's face it, we all knew Unintended was heading towards a gory climax of some kind. But the prob- lem is neither that the violence and deg- radation on display are 'too much', and neither, really, that this was a predictable move for the debut play by Unifaun's founder and producer. The issue is one of simple story structure. Jamie's torture arrives with very little contextual drama to make it feel like a fully-rounded affair. Yes, there's some- thing of a 'ticking clock' in Lily-Anne get- ting ready off-stage, and the possibility of her discovering her parents in the act (or various acts, as it happens). But given how Lily-Anne herself coos in pleasure as her father suggestively nibbles on her earlobe, the audience knows that any sur- prise she may derive from catching them with Jamie would be minimal. Another problem is that, while Jamie's backstory does help the play's themes come to full bloom in a surreal coda that evokes both David Lynch and Donnie Darko, its rev- elation comes far too late for the torture to feel anything but a numbing exercise in shock. In a lot of ways these are 'rookie mis- takes' on Buckle's part – the inevitable infelicities of a first-time playwright trying their hand at a genre that they've loved and have experienced second-hand from the producer's chair. But Buckle's satisfying handling of the darkly humor- ous repartee shown in the first half of Unintended, along with the deliciously nail-biting character drama aided by a clutch of actors who clearly trust him and the Unifaun project, may just augur for better things in the future. With less reverential pastiche of in-yer-face clas- sics and more attention to character arcs and story structure, Buckle may just give us some English-language Maltese drama to write home about in the near future. Unintended will be staged for a final performance at Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Valletta tonight at 20:00 Close shave… too close: Mariele Zammit and Stephen Mintoff. Photography by Christine Joan Muscat Azzopardi "Ironically, for all the hard- ons it seeks to inspire in our beleaguered protagonist, the second half of the play is remarkably limp as far as narrative drive is concerned"