Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/922844
maltatoday SUNDAY 7 JANUARY 2018 Interview 14 By Raphael Vassallo We're in the backstage dressing room at the Manoel Theatre, shortly before Malcolm Galea gets into costume (as Dame Nanny O'Beezwax) for the penultimate matinee of this year's Christmas panto, 'Alice in Wonderland'. And much like Alice falling down the rabbit-hole, entering this 'inner sanctum' - where the magic all happens, as it were – brought back memories of my own first panto experience, aged eight or thereabouts. (Mostly, a sensation of blind terror at the first appearance of the 'Giant' in 'Puss in Boots'... or was it 'Jack and the Giant Beanstalk'?) In any case, this annual theatrical tradition has clearly left a small mark on myself: and judging by the evident success it has consistently enjoyed over years, it also occupies some form of centrality in the local cultural scene. How do you account for the consistent success of the Christmas Pantomime? My first impression of Panto was different from yours. I saw my first Panto when I was 19. I was at Jun- ior College at the time. And I went mainly because my friends were in it. But I was blown away... by the scale of it, by everything. It was one of those things: I said to my- self, 'I need to be involved in this. No matter what happens, I need to work in it: even if it's voluntary...' Did this 'call of the theatre' begin with Panto, or had you already been acting at the time? No, at Junior College we had al- ready started doing some second- ary school theatre: putting on plays here and there... and I made friends with the people I'm still friends with today: Chris Dingli and Wes- ley Ellul, who do the 'Comedy Knights'... we were a trio back then; and we were each other's best men when we got married... I think your social circle really helps you in these things... Panto seems to be something of a 'social circle' in itself: though the names change, the basic acts – 'Dame', 'goodies', 'baddies', etc – always remain the same. Even backstage, you get the impression of a community of people who know each other, and are used to working with each other. There is a sort of family feel to it. Is this, perhaps, also part of why Panto is so popular among families? Panto used to be a lot more like that than it is now. When I first started – not that long ago, I guess: my first Panto was 2001 – there was a bar under the stage. The ac- tors would be drinking in between calls. And the average age for a chorus member was mid-20s... it was different. Nowadays, the quali- ty has risen. You have all these peo- ple coming out of drama schools, who started out very young, and who are now around 18 or 19... all really good, so even the audition process has become more difficult. Some people who don't get picked today, might easily have been cast 10 years ago. The standard has gone up; while the average age has gone down... That's a good thing, surely? Oh yes, absolutely. But [laugh- ing] you can't have a bar under the stage anymore, can you? No, what I meant was that things changed inevitably: for one thing, there has been more of a focus – as there should be – on behaviour in thea- tre. Today, I'm 38: if I'm acting with 18-year-olds, I can't go out drinking with them afterwards. In any case, people tend to socialise with their own age-groups anyway. The good thing, however, is that the Panto has become a lot more professionally focused. People now see it as a stepping down to get- ting an audition abroad, and things like that... but to answer you about the family appeal: a lot of it comes from tradition. I like to compare Panto with Carnival. It's something we got from another culture, and made our own. Now it's a staple of Maltese Christmas culture. Many people just take it as a given: 'My parents took me to the panto; I will take my kids to the panto'. It is ulti- mately a family outing. And family outings have always been a bit of an easier sell, from a production point of view. We were at the Edinburgh Fringe just last year, with a family show, and we didn't do badly: for the first time, we broke even. But they tell you: for your show to do well, you either have to have a big name – or a show which is itself already a big name – or it has to be a family show. It's an easier sell. People tend to relive their child- hood. When you do a show just for grown-ups: people will see it, they might enjoy it... but they may not necessarily want to see the same thing five years from now. It's not the same with experiences you have in childhood... At the same time, however, the Panto itself has also evolved and changed over the years. The formula may be largely consistent, but the themes (inevitably) have to adapt to the changing times. And one big difference from my own childhood memories is that there is now more than one Panto. Before, it was just MADC. How did that impact the scene? Ever since the MADC moved to the MFCC in Ta' Qali, and there are other companies doing the Manoel Theatre, Masquerade and FM – there has been a competi- tion boost, and it has really helped. The quality has gone up across the board.. Another thing is that the companies are different; but the people involved all audition for both. I myself have just done two years writing and playing the Dame for Masquerade. Next year I'm writing the MADC panto again... I've written and directed MADC pantos before... It's the same pool of people moving around... On the subject of writing: part of what makes our Panto tradition different is the prevalence of political satire: which stems from a time when satire was viewed as the only 'safe' way to criticise the government. This lends the Panto a (very remote) undertone of seriousness. Is this legacy still felt today? Yes. Political satire is still quite an important part of pantomime. Po- litical jokes are the ones that get the biggest laughs; sometimes, though, they're the jokes that create the biggest discomfort. Especially these days, when the Prime Minister has young children who will come to watch... there's always a day when he's in the audience with his kids, and those shows get the most mut- ed response... because, I think, peo- ple might be wary about laughing too loudly. [Laughs] But it's still an important element. As a writer... every writer has a certain style. I myself write professionally – in the sense that I don't do anything else – so I focus mainly on narra- tive. I want the audience to follow a story that moves from one thing to another; I don't them to be look- ing at their watches. What I want is a driving story-line. Everything else – including the political jokes – is quite secondary in my writing. Then I gauge the atmosphere, and throw in the political jokes. This year, the atmosphere is a bit more tense than usual. So there is less political commentary than I would otherwise have put. People have reached breaking point with po- litical commentary. There's some tension in the air, so you try not to add to it. And it's not 'my' Panto, either. I'm commissioned to write it, and my job is to make sure that the company which commissioned me gets good feedback. And that the audience has a good time. So, this year, my political jibes were fairly... subdued. Meanwhile, another inevitable consequence of the 'family entertainment' business is that Panto writers have to cater for literally all age groups: from the tiniest tots, all the way up the most senior of senior citizens. That can't be easy. Is there any trick to entertaining such diverse age- groups with the same script? I think, in our generation... peo- ple in their 30s... we were raised watching cartoons. And if you look at children's entertainment coming out nowadays – movies like 'Shrek', 'Zootopia', etc – they're all aimed at children, yes... but they also need to entertain the people who will be paying for the ticket. I think it's taken for granted now, that children's entertainment needs to cater for adults. There is a certain style to it: it's not over-simplistic at all. So rather than aim directly at the children, I aim at the child within the adult... But children themselves must surely be slightly harder to entertain than they were in previous generations. They now live in a universe where there will always be something – mobiles, laptops, 24-hour Cartoon Network, etc - to keep them permanently It's something we got from another culture and made our own. Now it's a staple of Maltese Christmas culture. Many people just take it as given TRADITION Sometimes political jokes create the biggest discomfort. Especially these days, when the Prime Minister has young children who will come to watch SATIRE Breaking the fourt