Theatre bonanza over two weekends

Local theatre and drama lovers are in for a real treat. The last two weekends of August will be seeing the first edition of the Malta International Theatre Festival organized by the Malta Drama Centre in collaboration with the Directorate of Lifelong learning and Early School Leavers and the Ministry of Finance and will  feature two foreign and five local theatre companies.

The Malta International Theatre Festival which will be held between the 22nd and 31st of August at the Greek Theatre within the precincts of Maria Regina Girls’ Seconday in Blata l-Bajda, is being launched to commemorate the 20th Anniversary (1994-2014) since the official establishment of the Malta Drama Centre as the national performing arts school under the Department of Education. The Malta Drama Centre is nowadays one of the centres under the Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Early School Leavers.

The aim of the Festival is to present, by way of a variety of plays, performances and subsequent critical analyses, colloquies and workshops, a global picture of the diverse trends in theatre, and to encourage encounters between theatre practitioners.

The first weekend of the festival (between the 22nd and the 24th of August) will include 4 different one act plays, three of which from Malta and one from the United Kingdom.

The three local productions are “The Stronger” by August Strindberg produced by TAC Theatre and directed by Marc Cabourdain,  “Għal Dejjem” by Claudio Carta, a physical theatre performance produced by Sense of Play and directed and performed by Carta himself and “Coco’s Fabulous Speed Dating Soiree” written and directed by Vikesh Godhwani and produced by Frolic Theatre. The foreign production for the weekend will be “Rumors of Innocence” produced by British company Theatre Studio West and written and directed by the highly-acclaimed Julie Saunders.

The second weekend of the Malta International Theatre Festival (between the 29th and 31st of August) will include 1 foreign and two local productions. The two local productions are the comedy “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon” by Don Zilidis produced by Vermiglio Theatre Productions and directed by Dominic Said and the musical “A…My name is Alice” by Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd, produced by Masquerade Theatre Company and directed by Stephen Oliver, Rachel Fabri and Francesco Nicomedu. The third play for the weekend will be “MØrke” produced by the Scandinavian, London-based Frost Theatre company.

Apart from the six local and two foreign productions selected for staging, the festival will also include a number of workshops and seminars led by different local and foreign actors and directors as well as scriptwriters.

The festival is being held thanks to the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance and the Directorate of Lifelong Learning and Early School Leavers.

Tickets are available online from www.ticketline.com.mt. Tickets for one night are selling at €15 while a block ticket for both weekends (one night on each weekend) are available at €25 and include a free glass of wine. Parking in the school grounds is available free of charge. For more information one may check the official Facebook page of the festival or call on 21220665 or 77070701.