A group of five actors, four from Malta and one from Israel, and two production crew, has returned from a six-day visit to Munich in Germany where they performed Love Potion for Arlecchino an original Commedia dell’Arte farce, written and directed by Narcy Calamatta. The visit was organised by the cultural NGO Zararti Foundation at the invitation of Jaume Villalba Sanchez, lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilian University drama department and resident ‘Commedia’ director at LMU’s Studio Bühne theatre.

Mr Sanchez had come to know Maltese actors in 2006 when he visited Malta with the German production of Bible I - The Genesis, staged at the Manoel Theatre. He was then invited to come back to Malta in 2008 to give a Commedia dell’Arte course and direct the Goldoni play Arlecchino Servant of Two Masters, in collaboration with Frank Tanti of Maleth. Since then, Mr Calamatta and Mr Sanchez have kept contact, and the trip was the latest venture in this ongoing transnational artistic relationship.

In Munich, the Maltese troupe played for three nights running and had full houses in the 80-seat black box theatre. After each show, the group mixed with the audience, composed mainly of drama lecturers and students, and discussed theatre over a glass of wine. The feedback, as written in a purposely laid out visitors’ book, was very complimentary. 

Actors, Almog Pail who played Pantalone’s young daughter Carabella, Olivia-Ann Marmara’ as the handmaiden Cenerentola, Kris Spiteri who played the hilarious suitor Benvoglio, and masks, Pantalone performed by Narcy Calamatta and Arlecchino played by Malcolm Vella King, together with choreographer cum makeup and wardrobe artist, Hannah Zammit, were lionised by the audience. The curtain calls after each performance were minutes long, and on the last night the cast was called back for another long round of applause. 

Zararti Foundation administrator Michael Piscopo, who doubled as sound technician for the Munich trip, said that further information about Zararti’s activities can be found on the foundation’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZARARTI-Foundation/34582421530